United Nations

Inter-Agency Cluster
on Trade and
Productive Capacity

DELIVERING
AID FOR TRADE

February 2012
 United Nations
Inter-Agency
Cluster on Trade and
Productive Capacity

DELIVERING
AID FOR TRADE

February 2012
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

Background ............................................................................................................ 1

Part A. Main goals ............................................................................................. 1

1. Terms of reference ...................................................................................... 1

2. Members of the Cluster ............................................................................... 2
3. The majority of members of the Cluster are non-resident ........................... 2
4. What is the role of the Cluster’s assistance in integrating trade and
productive capacity in national development strategies? .......................... 3
5. How the Cluster’s assistance to trade and productive capacity can
contribute to the UNDAF and Delivering as One processes? ................... 4
6. What is the role of the Cluster in the Enhanced Integrated
Framework (EIF) and how it is linked to the “Delivering as One”
and UN system-wide coherence at the country level? ................................. 4

Part B. Main activities....................................................................................... 6

Operations of the Cluster at the country, regional and global level ................ 7

1. Participation of the Cluster in the One UN Pilots ....................................... 7

2. Role of the Cluster in new UNDAFs ........................................................... 9
3. Organization and Participation of the Cluster at United Nations
country, regional and global events ............................................................. 9
4. Support to the UN Resident Coordinators (UNRCs) and UNCTs in
operational issues related to trade and productive sectors ....................... 11
5. Example of coordination within the Cluster .............................................. 12

Cooperation within the Cluster at the UN System Level ................................. 12

1. Cluster’s proposals on MDGs new targets and indicators.......................... 12

2. Cooperation and coordination within the Cluster in setting norms and
policies on UN system wide operational activities .................................. 12
3. Other Cluster's contribution to the United Nations
system-wide coherence ........................................................................... 13
4. The new funding framework available at the country level ...................... 14
5. Publications ............................................................................................... 16

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 Page

Part C. The mandates of the members of the Cluster .................................. 17

UNCTAD .................................................................................................. 17
UNIDO ...................................................................................................... 19
FAO .......................................................................................................... 20
ITC ............................................................................................................ 21
WTO ......................................................................................................... 23
UNDP ........................................................................................................ 25
UNEP ........................................................................................................ 26
ILO ............................................................................................................ 29
UNCITRAL .............................................................................................. 30
UNECA ..................................................................................................... 33
UNECE ..................................................................................................... 35
ECLAC ..................................................................................................... 37
ESCAP ...................................................................................................... 39
ESCWA .................................................................................................... 41
UNOPS ..................................................................................................... 44

Part D. Annexes ............................................................................................... 46

Annex: 1 Trade Capacity Building Inter-Agency Resource Guide

(Overview and Main Categories) ........................................................... 47

Annex: 2 Aid for Trade and Human Development, A Guide to

Conducting Aid for Trade Needs Assessment Exercises
(Table of Contents and Executive Summary) .......................................... 54

Annex: 3 Statement of the Secretary-General of the United Nations -

Launching of the CEB Inter-Agency Cluster on Trade
and Productive Capacity .......................................................................... 60

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BACKGROUND

Further to a proposal made by the Secretary-General of UNCTAD at the UN

System Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB) First Regular Session of
April 2007, and as a result of consultations among UN agencies and entities
involved in trade-related assistance, an informal meeting on the establishment of a
CEB thematic cluster on “trade and productive capacity” was held at UNCTAD on
20 April 2007, with the participation of UNIDO, FAO, ITC. It was agreed that the
establishment of an interagency thematic Cluster could play an important role in
ensuring that the issues related to trade and productive sectors and their interface
with the MDGs are adequately taken into account in the “Delivering as One” and
UN-wide coherence process. The Cluster could also serve to strengthen the UN
response to the “Aid for Trade” initiative. It was emphasized that the membership
of the Cluster should be open and flexible.

At the CEB Second Regular Session of October 2007, the Chairman “noted that
the Committee had agreed to recommend the approval of a CEB cluster on trade
and productive capacity”.

A. MAIN GOALS

1. Terms of reference
1. Emphasize the linkages between trade, poverty reduction, human
development and the MDG and, within this framework, the role of trade and
productive sectors policies and operations in the overall UN analytical and
normative work and development assistance, by enhancing and
complementing the coordination role of the CEB (including the Executive
Committee on Economic and Social Affairs (EC-ESA) and the United
Nations Development Group (UNDG) and other interagency mechanisms;
2. Coordinate a multidimensional, coherent and efficient approach and
delivery of programmes and operations related to trade and productive
sectors;
3. Contribute to more policy coherence, interagency cooperation and
integrated activities on trade and productive sectors within the UN System
and in particular at the country level;
4. Contribute to complementarities between the assistance provided by all
members of the Cluster including through the Enhanced Integrated
Framework (EIF) and the Aid for Trade (AfT) initiative;

1
5. Contribute to the introduction of trade and productive sectors policy issues
and operations, as appropriate in each case, in the “One UN Pilots” and in
all UN-wide country level plans, particularly through joint missions and
joint operations;
6. Exchange experiences and information among secretariats on policy,
managerial and financial issues raised by the “Delivering as One process”
and UN-wide coherence reform;
7. Prepare joint proposals and initiatives regarding programmes and
development operations to be submitted to member States, donors,
interagency bodies (CEB and UNDG) and Resident Coordinators, as
appropriate; and
8. Cooperate in the design and the delivery of training activities of Resident
Coordinators and their staff, in coordination with the UNDG and the UN
System Staff College, in view of raising awareness and understanding of the
linkages between trade, poverty reduction, human development and the
MDGs in specific trade and productive sectors policy issues and related
assistance.

2. Members of the Cluster

The Cluster has an open-ended membership with a view to preserving flexibility
and enhancing effectiveness of its joint initiatives, particularly joint missions and
joint operations in a particular country.

Current members of the Cluster are: UNCTAD, UNIDO, FAO, ILO, UNCITRAL,
ITC, WTO, UNDP, the five UN Regional Commissions, UNEP and UNOPS.

3. The majority of members of the Cluster are non resident

The non-resident status is not, and should not be, an obstacle to the participation of
the members of the Cluster in the UN Country Teams and in the UN country
assistance plans, as appropriate in each case, in view of the role of trade and
productive capacity assistance in the policy-making of developing countries. The
role of UN Resident Coordinators is crucial in ensuring that the assistance provided
by the members of the Cluster is taken into consideration in the UN-wide national
assistance plans upon the requests of governments and according to the national
development priorities.

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4. What is the role of the Cluster’s assistance in integrating trade
and productive capacity in national development strategies?
The members of the Cluster provide assistance in building the capacity in the areas
of trade and productive policies, in particular in supply side capacity; export
capacity; capacity to implement trade and trade-related rules; dispute settlement
capacity; negotiating capacity; as well as in research and analysis.

Acknowledging the pivotal role of trade as an engine for sustained economic

growth and human development, the assistance aims at enhancing the development
impact of trade and trade-related national policies and productive activities, both
quantitatively and qualitatively with a view to contributing towards achieving the
Millennium Development Goal (MDGs). The operations provided by the members
of the Cluster encompass all national trade and trade related policies, from the
macroeconomic to the sectoral and microeconomic levels. Areas of assistance
include global trade advocacy, trade policy development, legal and regulatory
frameworks, supply capacity, compliance support infrastructure and services, trade
promotion and capacity building, market and trade information, trade facilitation,
trade infrastructure and trade related financial services (see annex 1). This
multidimensional and multifaceted assistance aims at mainstreaming trade in the
national development and poverty reduction strategies, in particular in the least
developed countries (LDCs).

Trade and trade-related policies, activities, institutional and legal frameworks have
direct implications on all the domestic aspects of development and on the
achievement of the MDGs. The Cluster aims at highlighting that the insertion of
developing countries in the international economy and trading system has wide and
profound impact on all aspects of their social, economic, cultural life and
development processes.

The Cluster emphasizes the need for greater focus on the ability of developing
countries to derive development gains from the opportunities offered by the
international trading system. It intends to raise the awareness at national level with
regard to the development potential of trade policies and activities. One important
objective to be achieved through greater interagency cooperation within the Cluster
is the improvement of institutional and human capacity constraining the ability of
many developing countries to undertake in-country trade policy formulation and
prioritization, and building of trade infrastructure.

3
5. How the Cluster’s assistance to trade and productive capacity can
contribute to the UNDAF and Delivering as One processes?
UNDAFs prepared prior to the UN system wide coherence reform neglected
economic policies issues related to the external sector. The inclusion of the
national economy in the international economic system lies at the core of all
developing countries' priorities. As a result the coordinated participation of the
Cluster in the new UNDAF processes has already provided significant changes in
this regard.

Integration of trade and productive issues in UNDAFs and One UN Programmes

ensures coherence between the domestic and the international environment of the
national development processes, strengthens synergies and linkages, multiplies
effect and increases impact of the UN projects and programmes at the country
level.

Enhanced inter-agency coherence through joint initiatives at the country level will
not only ensure that economic and trade-related issues feature more prominently in
the UNDAFs but will have an impact on the effectiveness of UN expertise and
avoid duplication of efforts and, above all, enhance national capacity to formulate
UN country assistance plans that include trade and productive capacity issues as
essential components of national development strategies. The Cluster is providing
new impetus to economic, trade and trade-related issues and ensuring that when
formulating national development and poverty reduction strategies, national
authorities take into account both domestic and external factors

6. What is the role of the Cluster in the Enhanced Integrated

Framework (EIF) and how it is linked to the “Delivering as One”
and UN system-wide coherence at the country level?

Revamped in May 2007, the Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF) is a

multilateral trade capacity development initiative for Least Developed Countries
(LDCs) currently supported by twenty three countries. In addition, the programme
is supported by six core agencies, namely IMF, ITC, UNCTAD, UNDP, World
Bank and WTO. In May 2009 UNIDO signed up as an Implementing Agency and
was granted observer status to the EIF Board. Forty three countries are full
beneficiaries of the program. In addition, two more countries have applied to
become beneficiaries.

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The Enhanced Integrated Framework was launched in October 2008 when the
Executive Secretariat was established. The Secretariat is supported by UNOPS
who were selected as the Trust Fund Manager in June 2009. The Trust Fund was
launched in December 2008. This facilitated the full operationalization of the
program that saw the first Tier1 approvals and disbursements in July 2009.

The program's main objective is to support institutional capacity development in

beneficiary countries to mainstream trade, coordinate support provided by
development partners to the trade agenda, and assist in the implementation of the
LDCs' national trade and development strategies as outlined in the National
Development Plans or Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs).

Specific operating principles of the EIF are:

 The effective use of trade as a development tool by LDCs;

 LDC ownership of the in-country programme and projects funded by the
EIF including the responsibility to identify their trade development
priorities and manage their trade development activities with the support of
the relevant national, regional and international bodies and donors; and
 A partnership approach in accordance to the principles of the Paris
Declaration of Aid Effectiveness (“Paris Declaration”) whereby donors and
international agencies coordinate their response to the needs of LDCs,
manage for results, ensure LDC leadership and accept mutual
accountability.

In the One UN pilot countries that are LDCs, it is expected that the Enhanced
Integrated Framework will provide a common platform for trade-related support
provided by UN agencies thereby ensuring coherence, complementarities and
synergies in UN- work at the country level.

Accordingly, the Cluster aims at ensuring an effective interface between the EIF
and the country level operations related to trade and productive capacity, as
appropriate in each case and according to the national needs and demands.

Therefore, when dealing with EIF countries, the activities included in the Joint
Programmes are in conformity with the one proposed in the diagnostic trade
integration study (DTIS). This approach is already operative in the Delivering as
One United Nations pilots Cape Verde, Mozambique and Rwanda. There are
currently being formulated in Delivering as One countries such as Bhutan,
Comoros and Lesotho.

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 B. MAIN ACTIVITIES

The “Delivering as One” process and the ongoing reforms of the UN development
operations provide new opportunities for more visibility, increased coherence and
coordination among the UN entities that are involved in trade-related assistance.
One of the highlights of the Cluster’s activities was the Special Session chaired by
the UN Secretary-General Mr. Ban Ki-moon at Accra in the context of the
UNCTAD XII Ministerial Conference, on April 20, 20081. The CEB Inter-Agency
Cluster on Trade and Productive Capacity is now recognized as a very dynamic
interagency mechanism dedicated to the coordination of trade development
operations at the national and regional levels within the UN system.

On 20 April 2007, UNCTAD, UNIDO, FAO, ITC, WTO, UNDP and the five UN
Regional Commissions established the Cluster. UNEP and UNOPS joined in 2008,
ILO joined in 2010. The Cluster that was incorporated into the UN Chief
Executives Board chaired by the Secretary-General of the UN in November 2007
makes a concrete and direct contribution to the UN system-wide coherence reform
by:

1. Coordinating its participation in the Delivering as One UN Pilots and

countries involved in a new UNDAF process; and

2. Coordinating its participation, as appropriate, within United Nations

Development Group (UNDG) machinery, in view of the formulation of new
United Nations rules and standard mechanisms for development operations.

The following is a summary of the main initiatives undertaken by the CEB Cluster
since its creation. It includes operations of the Cluster at the country level and at
the level of the UN system.

1
See annex 3.

6
 OPERATIONS OF THE CLUSTER AT
THE COUNTRY LEVEL

1. Participation of the Cluster in the One UN Pilots

The “One Programmes”2 bring all the United Nations agencies together under one
nationally-owned strategy that draws on the full range of UN expertise. The “One
Programme” makes the UN Development Assistance Frameworks (UNDAF)
operational through joint programming that entails the coordination of plans and
their implementation. It is supported by a “One Budgetary Framework”3 which
provides a holistic financial picture of the available and required resources for the
UN participating agencies. Managed at the country level by the United Nations
Resident Coordinator Office, the One Budgetary Framework provides a basis for
allocating resources, setting priorities and mobilizing resources to cover funding
gaps through the “One UN Fund”.4

The United Nations Inter-Agency Cluster on Trade and Productive Capacity

is involved, with different levels of intensity and flexible modalities, in the eight
One UN Pilot Countries. At the time of the preparation of this report (January
2012), joint programmes were being designed and/or implemented by the Cluster
as follows:

2
See http://www.undg.org/index.cfm?P=7 and http://www.undg.org/?P=154
3
The “One Budgetary Framework” refers to the agreed and costed results of the One UN
Programme in one consolidated financial framework, showing each Participating UN
Organizations’ planned input together with funding source: (regular or other) as well as
unfunded areas. It refers to the financial expression of the totality of the “One UN
Programme”. The One Budgetary Framework is therefore the total Programme resource
picture of One Plan for all participating organizations including regular (or core) resources
of organizations involved, received/pledged other (or non-core) resources from all sources
as well as the funding gap between existing resources and the total cost of the One
Programme. http://www.undg.org/?P=155
4
The “One UN Fund” is a joint development fund modeled on the UNDG Joint Programme
Pass-Through modality. It is aimed to maximize the efficacy of delivery of the United
Nations system on the ground by channeling resources into a common fund for the strategic
priorities of the One UN Programme. The amount estimated for the One UN Fund is
therefore the total cost of the One Programme, net of existing regular (core) and other (non-
core) resources.
http://www.undg.org/docs/7883/InformationNoteOneBudgetaryFrameworkOneFund.doc

7
1. In Albania, the Cluster participated to the formulation of the outcome 2.1
of the new UNDAF titled “Programme of Cooperation 2012-2016”. The Cluster’
outcome is contributing to the country’s integration in the European structures by
enhancing its trade and investment regulatory framework. The activities,
implemented by UNECE, UNCTAD, UNDP, UNIDO, ILO, ITC and FAO, started
in 2012.

2. In Cape Verde, the Cluster continues the operations provided since 2008
within the initial phase of the One UN Pilot under the UNCTAD led Joint
Programme on the integration of Cape Verde into the world economy. The new
joint programme, implemented by UNCTAD, UNDP, UNIDO, ITC, FAO and ILO
belongs to the outcome 1 of the new UNDAF 2012-2016.

3. In Mozambique, further completion in 2011 of the activities under the first

phase of the One UN Pilot, the Cluster participated to the formulation of the
UNDAF 2012-2015. With reference to the Outcome 2 of the new UNDAF, the
Cluster is supporting the small and medium size enterprises to adopt market and
value chain-oriented management and business practices. The activities, carried out
by UNCTAD, UNDP, UNIDO, ITC and ILO, started in 2012.

4. In Pakistan, further to requests of the Government and the United Nations

Resident Coordinator, the Cluster is involved in the second phase of the One UN
Programme by participating in the formulation of the new UNDAF Pakistan 2013-
2017.

5. In Rwanda, the Cluster is implementing a joint programme (started in

2008) under the Outcome “Economic Governance” which includes UNECA,
UNCTAD, UNDP, UNIDO and ITC. The Cluster’s activities consist in
mainstreaming the Rwanda’s regulatory frameworks on trade and investment with
a particular focus on the policies and best practices developed at the regional level.

6. In the United Republic of Tanzania, further to requests from the

Government and the United Nations Resident Coordinator, the Cluster participated
to the formulation of the UNDAF 2011-2015 entitled “United Nations
Development Assistance Plan”. The Cluster is part of the pillar “Economic Growth
and Governance” that includes the interventions of UNDP, ILO, UNCTAD,
UNIDO and ITC. The implementation of the activities started in 2011.

7. In Viet Nam, the Cluster is continuing the implementation (started in 2009)

of the One United Nations Joint Programme entitled “Green production and trade
to increase income and employment opportunities for the rural poor” supported by
the MDG Achievement Fund. FAO, ILO, ITC, UNCTAD and UNIDO are
participating to the programme.

8
8. In Uruguay, the Cluster intervention is included in the UNDAF 2011-
2015’s Result 1 titled “Sustainable development through integration into the
international trading system, diversified production and increased investment”. The
Cluster’s intervention encompasses UNCTAD, UNDP, UNIDO, ITC, FAO and
UNEP.

For the countries benefiting from the Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF), the
Cluster plays an important role of interface and coordination to ensure inclusion of
the EIF initiatives within the Delivering as One process.

2. Role of the Cluster in new UNDAFs

In addition to the One UN Pilot Countries, the number of countries having adopted
the Delivering as One approach when formulating new UNDAFs, based on the
2009 revised guidelines for the United Nations country teams on preparing
common country assessments, is increasing. Many UN Resident Coordinators are
requesting the Cluster's assistance to address government priorities on trade-related
and productive capacity issues at the country level.

The Cluster is involved in the design and implementation of joint programmes with
different intensity and configuration in countries (January 2012) such as:
 Africa: Comoros, Lesotho, Mali and Sao Tome and Principe;
 Egypt, occupied Palestinian territory and the Syrian Arab Republic;
 Afghanistan, Bhutan, Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Nepal;
 Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States: Azerbaijan,
Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine; and
 Latin America and the Caribbean: Ecuador, Haiti and Panama.

3. Organization and Participation of the Cluster at United Nations

country, regional and global events

Country events

In view of fund raising awareness on the role of the Delivering as One approach
and on the role of the Cluster in delivering aid for trade, the Cluster organized in
Geneva a number of events:

9
 On 22 September 2008 a Special Session dedicated to the One UN
Processes in Cape Verde; the agencies of the Cluster involved in the One
UN Programme of Cape Verde participated at the session. The Prime
Minister and the Minister of Economy delivered statements as well as the
United Nations Resident Coordinator.
 On 15 July 2009, a Special Session dedicated to the One UN Processes in
Rwanda. The Minister of Industry and Commerce of Rwanda and the
United Nations Resident Coordinator in Rwanda participated to the Session.
 On 28 April 2010 a Special Session dedicated to the delivery of Aidfortrade
in Belarus. The Minister of Economy, the Deputy Minister of Foreign
Affairs and the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Belarus participated
in the session.
 On 23-27 May 2011, a national workshop on Integrating the Trade
Dimension in UNDAFs in Lesotho; three agencies of the Cluster
par5ticipated at t6he workshop.

Regional events

In view of facilitating its contacts with the UN Country Teams, the Cluster
participated in two regional training workshops organized by the secretariat of the
UNDG (Development Operations and Coordination Office-DOCO) for the UN
Country Teams that are starting the formulation of new UNDAFs in 2009:

 Regional training workshop for UNCTs of Asian region in Bangkok (9

March 2009): a parallel session of the training was organized by UNCTAD,
UNDP, UNIDO and UNESCAP, aiming at explaining the role and goals of
the Cluster. Further contacts, including the identification of specific
operations of the Cluster, will be coordinated by UN-ESCAP.

 Regional training workshop for UNCTs of Europe/CIS countries) in

Bratislava (16-18 March 2009): the Cluster was represented by UNECE,
UNDP, UNCTAD and UNIDO.

 The Cluster was involved in the preparatory meeting on the Aid for Trade
road map for the United Nations Special Programme for the Economies
of Central Asia (SPECA) which took place in Bishkek /Kyrgyzstan) in
March 2009. In this case the lead agencies of the Cluster were the two
regional commissions involved in the region: UNECE and UNESCAP.

 Regional Workshop on Integrating Trade in the UNDAFs in Mali. (1-4

November 2011): the Cluster was represented by UNCTAD, UNIDO,
UNDP and ITC.

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Global event

Another special session entitled "Delivering Aid for Trade" was organized by the
Cluster during the Fifty-Third session of the Trade and Development Board on 18
September 2009. The UNCTAD Secretary General and the Director General of
UNIDO co-chaired this event with the participation of WTO. This event was an
occasion to present the Cluster approach whereby the concept of supply-side
weaknesses are placed at the core of trade-related assistance and making
operational the Aid for Trade Initiative.

A special event on “Trade and Productive Capacity” was organized by the Cluster
for the Fourth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries
(LDC-IV), Istanbul, on 9 May 2011. On the occasion of this event, a concept note
prepared by the Cluster on “The role of trade and productive capacity in promoting
inclusive and sustainable development in the Least Developed Countries” was
prepared for member States to be discussed in the presence of a number of heads of
agencies.

4. Support to the UN Resident Coordinators (UNRCs) and UNCTs in

operational issues related to trade and productive sectors

The Cluster organized or participated in learning events for UN Resident

Coordinators and economic advisors in view of facilitating the inclusion of trade
and productive capacity issues in the UNDAFs:

 In cooperation with the UN System Staff College, the Cluster organized a

pilot training workshop in Turin, Italy (16-19 May 2008), on trade and
productive issues for UN Resident Coordinators and economic advisors of
the UNCTs of transition economies.
 A Special Session of the Cluster for the 25 new UN Resident Coordinators
was organized in Geneva, on 25 November 2008, in the context of the
induction programme prepared by the United Nations Development
Operations Coordination Office (DOCO).
 The following Cluster Agencies (UNECE, UNCTAD UNDP and UNIDO)
participated as members of the Peer Support Group to the meeting for the
region Europe and CIS organized in Bratislava on 17 and 18 March 2009
and in Geneva 29 June 2010.

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 A Special Session of the Cluster for the 20 new UN Resident Coordinators
was organized in Geneva, on 18 March 2010, in the context of the induction
programme prepared by DOCO. A special session of the Cluster for 16 new
United Nations Resident Coordinators was organized in Geneva, on 23
February 2011, in the context of the induction programme prepared by
DOCO. The event, entitled “MDG1: Focus – Poverty Eradication through
Decent Work, Trade and Development”, was attended by ILO, UNIDO,
UNECE and UNCTAD.

5. Example of coordination within the Cluster

Proposals aiming at strengthening the “Supply-Side Needs” in selected Least

Developed Countries were prepared by UNIDO in close cooperation with
UNCTAD, WTO and ITC. These proposals constitute a comprehensive support to
the following countries: Benin, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Lesotho, Mozambique,
Senegal, Rwanda and Yemen, in the framework of the Aid for Trade (AfT)
initiative. The individual country proposals encompass activities identified by the
EIF/DTIS Action Matrices. Relevant Ministries, industrial associations,
representatives from business communities, donors and other relevant stakeholders
were consulted during the preparation of the proposals in view of ensuring a high
degree of ownership and alignment with the national development plans.

COOPERATION WITHIN THE CLUSTER

AT THE UN SYSTEM LEVEL

1. Cluster’s proposals on MDGs new targets and indicators

In view of the 2010 review of the MDGs, the Cluster, under the leadership of
UNIDO, initiated the process on the identification of targets and indicators on trade
and productive capacity that could be proposed for monitoring the progress
towards the MDGs. This exercise is based on the data, the analytical capacity, and
the operational expertise of the Cluster as a whole.

2. Cooperation and coordination within the Cluster in setting norms

and policies on UN system wide operational activities

The members of the Cluster increasingly exchange views and coordinate their
positions in the UNDG meetings and Working Groups. On several occasions,

12
common positions were adopted in these UNDG bodies among UNIDO, FAO,
UNCTAD, the UN Regional Commissions, UNEP, in particular regarding:

 The new financial rules governing UN-wide Multi Donors Trust Funds
(MDTFs) and Joint Programming Mechanisms (JPMs) adopted in 2008.
 The new Resident Coordinators’ Job Description, the UN Country Teams
Working Relations, and the updated CCA/UNDAF Guidelines, adopted by
the UNDG on 28 January 2009.
 The UNDG Non-Resident Agencies Action Plan (coordinated by
UNCTAD) adopted by the UNDG on 28 January 2009. The Cluster,
through UNCTAD, is monitoring the update of these plans.
 The design of the training and induction courses of UN Resident
Coordinators organized by DOCO and the UN System Staff College.
 Issues related to changes in management practices at the country level
derived from the system-wide coherence reforms.
 The Cluster was invited to present its experience at the Senior Managers
Group of UNOG that discussed the lessons learned by the One UN and the
system-wide coherence process.

3. Other Cluster's contribution to the United Nations system-wide

coherence

 Since 2007, the Cluster is increasingly using the practice of joint statements
or presentations delivered by one of the agencies on behalf of the Cluster as
a whole at General Assembly (Second Committee), the ECOSOC, the EIF
Board and other bodies.
 UNIDO organized a Conference entitled “United Nations System-wide
Coherence: the Next Steps” in Vienna, Austria, on 4 and 5 March 2008. The
UN Deputy Secretary-General, Ms. Migiro, was informed about the role of
the Cluster in a briefing organized by Mr. Yumkella, Director-General of
UNIDO.
 Within the fifty-fifth session of the Trade and Development Board,
UNCTAD organized a “Briefing on the CEB Inter-Agency Cluster on Trade
and Productive Capacity” in Geneva, Switzerland, on 16 September 2008.
UNCTAD, UNDP, ITC, UN-ESCAP, FAO and UNIDO participated in the
briefing that presented the goals, activities and achievements of the Cluster
within the UN system wide coherence “Delivering as One” to the Geneva
Delegations and international community in Geneva. These briefings are
being organized annually in the framework of UNCTAD Trade and
Development Board session in September.

13
 At the Enhanced Integrated Framework Focal Points Global Workshop,
organized in WTO in July 2009, a joint statement on behalf of the Cluster
was delivered by UNCTAD on the role of the Cluster in implementation of
Diagnostic Trade Integration Study action matrices.
 On 30 April 2010, UNCTAD, on behalf of the Cluster, presented the
financial and institutional mechanism agreed with the Swiss State
Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) for the financing of Cluster’s joint
programmes in selected countries (starting with Lao People’s Democratic
Republic) based on DTIS.

4. The new funding framework available at the country level

Delivering as One at the country level consists in inter-agency joint programming.

In the case of the One United Nations pilots and countries having adopted the
Delivering as One approach, a common United Nations budgetary framework is
setup. These joint programmes are funded by core and extrabudgetary funds
available in each agency and complemented by the following new funding
mechanism in order to ensure full delivery and greater impact.

The Multi-donors Trust Funds (MDTF)

The United Nations system, national authorities and donors are increasingly using
MDTFs and Joint Programmes (JP) to make Delivering as One operational. The
use of MDTFs is an application of the 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid
Effectiveness, in view of providing funding to support the achievement of national
and global priorities such as the MDGs.

MDTFs and JP are not “one-size-fits-all” instruments; they are designed to fit the
realities of a specific country or global situations. Nevertheless, they are
established on common core principles and strategies. For example, they involve a
broad range of stakeholders, including national authorities, donors and
participating agencies in the decision-making process, as appropriate.

The MDTFs are established to support specific country and/or global level
strategic priorities. The objective is to ensure that MDTFs and JPs reflect and
respond to the needs on the ground as defined by the relevant Governments and the
United Nations Country Teams. Strategic objectives of the MDTF and/or Joint
Programme using pass-through fund management are established only after
consultations among national authorities, United Nations agencies, donors and
other stakeholders. The objectives and scope of the MDTF are defined to ensure
government’s ownership and alignment with established regional and national
priorities and plans. Monitoring and evaluation and effective programme delivery
modalities are included so that the planned results are achieved.

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The One United Nations Funds

MDTFs were originally used in the context of the eight One United Nations Pilots.
In order to access these “One United Nations Funds”, UNCTAD submits proposals
for the allocation of resources on a yearly basis. These proposals are reviewed and
approved by the One United Nations Steering Committee composed of the United
Nations Resident Coordinator, the United Nations Country Team, the government
and donors at the country level. In 2010, thanks to the compliance with the MDTFs
rules of timely delivery and execution of the operations, the Cluster accessed, for
the third consecutive year, the resources for the One United Nations funds of
Rwanda and received the second allocation for Cape Verde and Mozambique.

Other MDTFs

In addition to the One United Nations pilot funds, the Cluster is involved in other
MDTFs such as:

 United Nations–Bhutan Country Fund: UNCTAD accessed this fund for the
organization of an interagency workshop on Investment productive capacity
and SMEs policies that may lead to other specific operations by the Cluster.
This activity is coordinated with the EIF/DTIS process in Bhutan;
 The MDG-F Achievement fund: This multi-donor fund supports innovative
actions with the potential for wide replication and high impact in selected
countries and sectors. The MDG-F finances United Nations activities that
are coordinated among at least two United Nations agencies in all
developing countries. The Fund supports specific thematic areas and its
Steering Committee based at Headquarters launches calls for proposals on
the thematic areas. For example, in Panama, a joint programme aimed at
achieving the MDG on poverty reduction was formulated within the CEB
Inter-agency Cluster. This allowed the Cluster to benefit from the first
allocation of the MDTF-MDG-F Panama Achievement Fund; and
 The expanded Delivering as One funding window: the Cluster has
submitted joint programmes for Comoros and Lesotho to this funding
window. The first donors to this facility included the Netherlands, Norway,
Spain and the United Kingdom.

15
5. Publications

The first edition of the Resource Guide on Trade-related Capacity Building5 was
prepared by UNIDO in 2008, compiling the information on the assistance delivered
by 22 UN entities. The 2010 Edition (see Annex 1) of the Resource Guide includes
25 UN Agencies, five Regional Development Banks, as well as Aid for Trade
profiles of 24 OECD DAC members, their trade related technical assistance
providers and programmes.

The Contribution of UNIDO to United Nations System-Wide Coherence:

Synergy at Work, UNIDO, Vienna 2009.

Aid for Trade and Human Development, A Guide to Conducting Aid for Trade
Needs Assessment Exercises, United Nations, 2009. The publication prepared by
UNDP in cooperation with the agencies of the Cluster, is a practical
methodological tool to conduct needs assessments at the country level. It
encompasses all the dimensions of trade and related assistance, how needs can be
identified at the macro and micro levels, and how the operations can be envisaged
within the national development priorities and the poverty reduction strategies.

The Cluster published a concept note on “The role of trade and productive capacity
in promoting inclusive and sustainable development in the Least Developed
Countries”. The paper was issued in May 2011 on the occasion of LDC–IV. It
argues that, in order to achieve progress towards the MDGs in LDCs, greater
emphasis should be put on supporting sustained economic growth through support
to the development of productive capacity (UNCTAD/TC/2011/1).

5
See: http://www.unido.org/en/doc/86537.

16
 C. THE MANDATES OF THE MEMBERS
OF THE CLUSTER

The section below highlights Programmes specifically related to trade and

productive capacity in the agencies members of the Cluster.

UNCTAD6
UNCTAD is the focal point of the United Nations for the integrated treatment of
trade and development and interrelated issues in the areas of finance, technology,
investment and sustainable development, in concordance with United Nations
General Assembly resolution 1995(XIX) of 30 December 1964 which established
UNCTAD as an organ of the General Assembly. This mandate was reaffirmed, in
particular, at the UNCTAD XII ministerial conference held in Ghana in April 2008
and in the Accra Accord that resulted there from.

Since its inception, UNCTAD has offered a comprehensive and multidisciplinary

perspective on the interface between trade and development, focusing on the
international trading and financial system and its implications for developing
countries. UNCTAD aims to ensure greater understanding of the interrelations
between international processes and negotiations on trade and investment, and the
development strategies and economic policies that countries put in place at the
national level.

UNCTAD provides technical assistance based on the research activities carried out
by its secretariat, and on the consensus that emerges from UNCTAD’s role as a
policy forum that encompasses both developed and developing countries. All
developing countries (particularly the least developed countries (LDCs)) and
transition economies are beneficiaries of UNCTAD’s technical assistance
operations, which are country-specific, regional or interregional. UNCTAD’s
operations seek to:

(a) Enhance the human and institutional capacities of developing countries to

strengthen their development policies and to create an institutional
environment conducive to sustainable development;
(b) Help developing countries to better understand their economic problems
and to find tailor-made solutions; and

6
http://www.unctad.org/en/docs/dom20051_en.pdf

17
 (c) Enable developing countries to become effective negotiators in the fields of
international trade, finance and investment, and help them to implement the
results of those negotiations.

UNCTAD’s technical assistance is delivered through 17 thematic clusters, which

encompass the following areas of assistance:

1. Policy formulation and trade negotiation skills (services, market access,

trade preferences);
2. Trade analysis capacities and information systems (analytical tools and
databases, new and dynamic sectors, trade adjustment reviews, South–South
trade);
3. Commodity sector development and poverty reduction (commodity policies
and practices, trade standards and certification requirements, sustainable
development in the extractive industries, marketing systems);
4. Competition policy and consumer protection (institutional capacities on
competition law and policy, formulation and enforcement of competition
and consumer protection rules);
5. Trade, environment and development (food safety requirements and market
access; the interface between trade, the environment and development;
organic agriculture; sustainable resource management; the Biotrade
initiative; the Biofuels programme; trade, development and investment
opportunities in the climate change regime);
6. Foreign direct investment – trends and issues;
7. Investment policies (investment policy reviews, international investment
agreements);
8. Investment facilitation (e-tools for business facilitation, I-guides and
investment guides, corporate transparency, insurance, intellectual property);
9. Enterprise development;
10. Globalization and development strategies (economic analysis for improved
economic governance);
11. Strengthening the debt management capacity of developing countries (the
Debt Management and Financial Analysis System (DMFAS) programme);
12. Transport and trade facilitation (trade logistics, transport and trade
facilitation policies and negotiations, and customs automation via the
Automated System for Customs Data (Asycuda) programme);
13. ICT policies and applications for development (ICT measurement, e-
commerce and law policies, development of ICT policies);
14. Cross-divisional training and capacity-building (TrainForTrade, the Virtual
Institute, the Port Training Programme);
15. Science, technology and innovation (technology transfer, South–South
cooperation, policy reviews);

18
16. Productive capacities in landlocked developing countries, small island
developing States, and structurally weak, vulnerable and small economies;
and
17. Strengthening support for trade mainstreaming into national development
plans and/or Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers in LDCs in the context of
the Enhanced Integrated Framework.

UNIDO7

UNIDO is the UN agency responsible for the development of productive industrial

capacities. Since more then 30 years, UNIDO provides technical assistance for the
development of the productive sector, in particular the private small and medium
enterprise sector. UNIDO’s technical assistance includes the development of the
enabling institutional environment for the development of competitive supply
capacities and their integration into production, supply and trade relations in a
national, regional and international perspective, with a specific focus on agro-
industry.

UNIDO’s technical assistance also includes the development of national and or

regional quality infrastructure and services in order to enable countries a better
implementation of multi-lateral trade rules, such as the TBT and SPS agreements.

UNIDO supports the development of quality infrastructure in the areas of

standardization, product testing and metrology/calibration laboratories, inspection
services, accreditation, systems and product certification, traceability, quality
promotion, etc.). Within the development of quality infrastructure and services,
UNIDO also offers a complete range of food safety related technical assistance
(Development of legal and regulatory framework, Competent Authorities,
compliance development along the supply chain).

UNIDO’s technical assistance programmes and projects support the Aid for Trade
Initiative, and are strongly driven by private sector trade requirements. Within the
Cluster UNIDO integrates its trade capacity building activities in joint inter-agency
activities with other UN Agencies such as WTO, UNCTAD, FAO, ITC, UNDP,
UNECE, UNECA, the World Bank, etc, as well as with other international
technical agencies in the area of standards and conformity assessment such as ISO,
ILAC, IAF, inter alia.

7
http://www.unido.org

19
FAO8

The FAO Trade Capacity Building Programme provides information and analysis
on trade issues affecting agriculture, fisheries and forestry and assistance to
member countries to build trade-related capacities. FAO is committed to providing
its Member States with trade-related assistance, as mandated in the World Food
Summit Plan of Action. In support of the new WTO negotiations on agriculture,
FAO has strengthened its programme of technical assistance aimed at enhancing
the capacity of Member States - especially developing countries and economies in
transition - to participate effectively in the multilateral negotiations and to derive
maximum benefit from global trade.

FAO's trade work dates back to well before the Uruguay Round of negotiations and
addresses broader policy and market issues of relevance to agriculture, fisheries
and forestry. FAO's approach is multidisciplinary in that it involves capacity
building for trade, including analytical as well as operational field activities with a
direct impact on supply-side capacities. As such, trade is one of FAO's Priority
Areas for Interdepartmental Action.

The FAO Trade Capacity Building Programme aims to:

 Strengthening the supply-side capability of the agricultural sector, including

fisheries and forestry, so that the sector is competitive and countries can
take advantage of trade opportunities;
 Ensuring that trade and trade policies are conducive for overall economic
development, agricultural development and food security;
 Promoting, developing and reinforcing policy and regulatory frameworks
for food, agriculture, fisheries and forestry; and
 Improving decision-making through the provision of information and
analysis on trade policy and practices.

This assistance is intended to address member countries’ needs, particularly

developing countries and countries in transition. The main beneficiaries are
government and non-government entities in the agriculture, forestry and fisheries
sectors.

8
http://www.fao.org

20
ITC9

Mandate

Since 1964, the International Trade Centre has helped to enable small business
export success in developing countries by providing trade development
programmes to the private sector, trade support institutions and policymakers. ITC
contributes to the growth of globally competitive companies and to their
sustainability.

ITC works in partnership with the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), supporting
their regulatory, research and policy mandates through trade-related technical
assistance.

ITC overarching goal is to help developing and transition countries achieve

sustainable development through exports and to deliver integrated solutions for
“Export Impact for Good” in partnership with trade support institutions. Through
Export Impact for Good, ITC puts trade to work for the MDGs, particularly in
poverty alleviation, empowering women exporters, environmental standards in
trade and post conflict trade development.

Mission

ITC enables small business export success in developing countries by providing,

with partners, sustainable and inclusive trade development solutions to the private
sector, trade support institutions and policymakers. Its three strategic objectives
are:

 Strengthen the international competitiveness of enterprises through ITC

training and support;
 Increase the capacity of trade support institutions to support businesses; and
 Strengthen the integration of the business sector into the global economy
through enhanced support to policymakers.

ITC can legitimately claim to be the ‘100% Aid for Trade’ organization. The four
pillars of Aid for Trade link directly to the three ITC strategic objectives. ITC has a
strong comparative advantage in relation to the engagement of the private sector
within the multilateral trading system of which WTO accession is one component.

9
http://www.intracen.org

21
Additionally, ITC contributes to the Aid for Trade agenda through support and
advice for the Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF) process.

Core Competencies

ITC technical assistance is delivered around its five key trade-related technical
assistance competencies (“Business Lines”) namely:

 Business & Trade Policy - ITC supports the small and medium business
sector to understand its role and to promote its interests in the formulation
of national trade policies and in the negotiation of international trade
agreements. It promotes business advocacy in the context of public-private
sector dialogue and institutional consultation mechanisms.
 Export Strategy - ITC helps policymakers and governments, as well as
enterprises, to formulate national and sector-specific export strategies. The
process focuses on sustainable export growth and on mainstreaming trade
into the broader development framework, including poverty alleviation,
empowerment of women and environmental sustainability.
 Strengthening Trade Support Institutions and the Business Environment -
ITC plays a critical role in helping policymakers and TSIs assist exporters
to generate and develop sustainable business. ITC offers capacity-building
programmes, tools and methodologies and facilitates learning from good
practices through benchmarking and networking. It also provides support
for improving the trade environment through trade facilitation services,
legal services and skills to have better access to finance.
 Trade Intelligence - ITC provides trade data, access to trade information,
market analysis and expertise to enterprises, TSIs and governments to
facilitate informed decision-making and increase the transparency of
international markets.
 Exporter Competitiveness - ITC provides capacity-building solutions for
communities, SMEs, small producers and sectors, to make them export-
ready and strengthen their competitiveness in international markets. It offers
a suite of solutions along the whole enterprise and sector value chain. These
are delivered through vocational training services, certified expert networks,
customized business consulting and market exposure, with the overall aim
of building skills, activating scale and removing obstacles to growth, thus
ensuring long-term sustainability.  

22
WTO10

The WTO provides a forum for negotiating agreements aimed at reducing

obstacles to international trade and ensuring a level playing field for all, thus
contributing to economic growth and development. The WTO also provides a legal
and institutional framework for the implementation and monitoring of these
agreements, as well as for settling disputes arising from their interpretation and
application. The current body of trade agreements comprising the WTO consists of
16 different multilateral agreements (to which all WTO members are parties) and
two different plurilateral agreements (to which only some WTO members are
parties).
Over the past 60 years, the WTO, which was established in 1995, and its
predecessor organization the GATT have helped to create a strong and prosperous
international trading system, thereby contributing to unprecedented global
economic growth. The WTO currently has 153 members, of which 117 are
developing countries or separate customs territories.
The Aid for Trade initiative was launched at the Hong Kong Ministerial
Conference in December 2005. WTO's role in the Aid for Trade initiative is that of
advocacy, analysis and debate, using its convening power and monitoring function
to mobilize Aid-for-Trade financing, to highlight the needs of its Members and
Observers, and to showcase effective implementation, including through regular
reviews.
Aid for Trade is about assisting developing countries to increase exports of goods
and services, to integrate into the multilateral trading system, and to benefit from
liberalized trade and increased market access. Effective Aid for Trade will
enhance growth prospects and reduce poverty in developing countries, as well as
complement multilateral trade reforms and distribute the global benefits more
equitably across and within developing countries.
The mandate and products of WTO's Technical Cooperation and Capacity Building
consist in the following:

Mandate

Although WTO technical assistance (TA) existed from the GATT days, it took
more prominence after the establishment of the WTO in 1995, mainly due to the
increased scope of the mandate of the Organization, as well as the significant
increase in developing country and LDC Members. Gradually, TA has now
become firmly embedded in the work of the WTO.

10
http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/devel_e/teccop_e/tct_e.htm

23
The current mandate of WTO TA has been laid down by the Doha Ministerial
Declaration, which unequivocally stated that:
“Technical cooperation and capacity building are core elements of
the development dimension of the multilateral trading system, and
we welcome and endorse the New Strategy for WTO Technical
Cooperation for Capacity Building, Growth and Integration”.
In pursuance of this, the Doha Declaration sets out the details of the mandate for
TA as follows:
 Supporting domestic efforts for mainstreaming trade into national economic
development plans and strategies for poverty reduction. The WTO
Secretariat is required to do this in coordination with other relevant
agencies;
 Ensuring that the delivery of WTO technical assistance assists developing,
least-developed countries, and low-income countries in transition, to adjust
to WTO rules and disciplines; and implement obligations and exercise the
rights of membership, including drawing on the benefits of an open, rules-
based multilateral trading system;
 According priority in TA delivery to small, vulnerable, and transition
economies, as well as to Members and Observers without representation in
Geneva;
 Significantly, Doha reaffirmed support for the work of the International
Trade Centre (ITC), effectively making the private sector, a key
constituency of ITC, an integral part of overall WTO TA; and
 Members have emphasized the urgent necessity for the effective
coordinated delivery of technical assistance with bilateral donors and other
relevant international and regional intergovernmental institutions, within a
coherent policy framework and timetable.
This mandate is operationalised by the Annual TA Plans which have been
consistently approved by Members. Effective from 2008, the TA Plan has now
become bi-annual.
It is pertinent to mention that the WTO Secretariat is currently undertaking a
review of its “mission statement” for TA. At the end of this review, proposals may
be put forward to Members for a re-consideration of WTO's mandate for TA.
Members have put emphasis on the need for technical assistance to benefit from
secure and predictable funding. The result is the creation of the Doha
Development Agenda Global Trust Fund (DDAGTF), which has provided an
annual dedicated fund for TA.

24
The Products
The TA products are designed to ensure a feasible number of high quality
activities, with expected durable effects. Each product comes with clearly
identified objectives. In this way outcomes become measurable, making
evaluation more meaningful. In defining the products, the approach that was
adopted reflects the situation that each product targets a different need, and is
based on different levels of knowledge of the participants.
At the moment the products are:
 General WTO-related TA and training;
 Specialized and advanced TA and training;
 Academic support for training and capacity building;
 Trainee programmes and internships; and
 E-learning.

In addition to these products, which are essentially run by the WTO, there is the
Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF), which is a mechanism for identifying
trade-related technical assistance to LDCs, implemented by six core agencies,
namely WTO, ITC, UNCTAD, the World Bank, IMF and UNDP (see page 4).
The WTO also provides the Secretariat for the Standards and Trade Trade
Development Facility (STDF). The STDF is a joint initiative in capacity building
and technical cooperation aiming at raising awareness on the importance of
sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) issues, increasing coordination in the provision of
SPS-related assistance, and mobilizing resources to assist developing countries
enhance their capacity to meet SPS standards

UNDP11

UNDP is the United Nations development network, connecting development

partners to knowledge and resources in finding locally-owned solutions for
building capacity, reducing poverty, promoting human development and achieving
the MDGs. UNDP is present on the ground in over 160 countries and territories.
UNDP takes the view that international trade can play an important role in raising
levels of human development and achieving sustainable poverty reduction. From
this perspective, trade is a means to an end, not an end in itself. Properly
harnessed, international trade can create opportunities for growth, poverty
reduction and human development through for example:

11
http:// www.undp.org

25
 Expanding markets: exports allow an economy to overcome the constraints
of its domestic market;
 Raising productivity: increased returns to scale in production resulting from
access to international markets; and
 Accelerated technological development: from increased exposure to new
technologies and knowledge.
However, none of this is automatic or inevitable. Appropriate policies are also
required across several fronts and sectors.
UNDP’s trade-related support has three main objectives:

(i) To help developing countries build capacity to compete internationally by

overcoming supply side constraints, especially LDCs;
(ii) To help developing countries build capacity to negotiate, interpret and
implement trade agreements (multilateral, regional and bilateral) in a
manner that prioritizes poverty reduction and human development; and
(iii) To help developing countries incorporate pro-poor, development-centered
trade policies into national development strategies, including poverty
reduction programmes.

UNDP also maintains an extensive private sector portfolio which seeks to foster
inclusive markets and consists of two broad type of interventions: private sector
development aimed at increasing the contribution of micro-, small and medium
sized enterprises to economic growth and poverty reduction; and private sector
engagement aimed at fostering partnerships with a range of companies from
multinationals (northern and southern), to small and medium sized enterprises
(SMEs),to enhance broad development objectives.

UNEP12
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is the United Nations
system designated entity for addressing environmental issues at the global and
regional level. UNEP’s overall mandate is to provide leadership and encourage
partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing, and enabling
nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of
future generations.
UNEP’s Governing Council requested UNEP in 2001 to “assist countries,
particularly developing countries and countries with economies in transition, to

12
http://www.unep.org

26
enhance their capacities to develop and implement mutually supportive trade and
environmental policies”, in a manner that is “geared to reflect the socio-economic
and development priorities, as well as the needs and capacities of individual
countries” (GC 21/14).
Located within UNEP’s Division of Technology, Industry and Economics,
UNEP’s Economics and Trade Branch (UNEP-ETB) seeks to conserve the
environment, reduce poverty, and promote sustainable development by enhancing
the capacity of governments, businesses, and civil society to integrate
environmental considerations into economic, trade, and financial policies and
practices. UNEP also hosts a number of secretariats of Multilateral Environmental
Agreements (MEAs) which cover linkages between trade and environment. The
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and
Flora (CITES) secretariat, for instance, undertakes capacity-building activities in
countries which are party to CITES.
UNEP-ETB has supported over 30 country projects that analyze the
environmental, economic and social effects of trade liberalization and other trade-
related policies in specific sectors, such as agriculture, fisheries, and forestry,
with the goal of ensuring that trade liberalization supports national sustainable
development objectives and poverty reduction strategies. Undertaken by national
research institutions in collaboration with relevant government ministries, these
country projects have strengthened countries’ capacities for assessing trade-
related impacts, instituting participatory processes, enhancing inter-ministerial
coordination and developing integrated policy design and implementation.
Lessons learned and findings from the country projects have been compiled as
follows:
 Sustainable Trade and Poverty Reduction: New Approaches to Integrated
Policy Making at the National Level;
 Environmental Impacts of Trade Liberalization and Policies for the
Sustainable Management of Natural Resources;
 Integrated Assessment of Trade Liberalization and Trade-related Policies;
and
 Integrated Assessment of the Impact of Trade Liberalization on the Rice
Sector.
Based on these projects, UNEP has produced a Reference Manual for the
Integrated Assessment of Trade-related Policies and Integrated Assessment:
Mainstreaming Sustainability into Policy Making – A Guidance Manual, which
are tailored to the needs of policy-makers and practitioners in developing
countries. Given the importance of the agricultural sector for poverty reduction
and the environment in developing countries, UNEP has also developed a

27
Handbook on Integrated Assessment of Trade-related Measures - The Agriculture
Sector.
Trade and environment policies are often developed in relative isolation from one
another due to a limited understanding of trade and environment linkages,
insufficient coordination among policy-makers, and a lack of capacity to design
integrated and mutually supportive policies. UNEP-ETB has been responding to
this challenge by initiating a number of joint initiatives and activities with the
WTO, UNCTAD, UN regional economic commissions, and MEA secretariats.
To further analyze the complex inter-relationships between agriculture, biological
diversity, and trade liberalization, UNEP is currently implementing an Initiative
on Integrated Assessment of Trade-Related Policies and Biodiversity in the
Agriculture Sector. This initiative aims to identify and assess the impacts of
agricultural trade policies on biodiversity, and build the capacity of African,
Pacific and Caribbean (ACP) countries to develop policy recommendations that
safeguard biological diversity, while maximizing sustainable development gains
from trade liberalization in the agriculture sector.
Within the Cluster, UNEP-UNCTAD Capacity Building Task Force on Trade,
Environment and Development (CBTF) is providing capacity building support to
countries through a number of inter-related activities, including:
 Country projects, involving national experts and institutions, to enhance
national capacities to develop mutually supportive trade, environment and
development policies;
 Thematic research on major issues in the trade-environment-development
domain and on practical approaches to address them in a sustainable way,
bearing in mind the development priorities of countries;
 Policy dialogues to facilitate awareness-raising, consultations and the
exchange of perspectives among experts, practitioners and negotiators at the
national, regional and international levels;
 Training to enhance countries’ understanding of the relationship and
complementarities between trade, environment and development; and
 Networking and information exchange to provide technical and operational
support at the national and regional levels and to widely disseminate the
results of TCB activities.
Since its inception in 2000, UNEP-UNCTAD CBTF has provided capacity
building support to over 1,000 policymakers and stakeholders from 32 countries.
Beginning in 2004, the CBTF has focused its activities on building national
capacity in WTO negotiations on Environmental Good and Services (EGS),
MEA-WTO relationship, and promoting production and trade of organic products.

28
In addition to capacity building seminars and workshops, 10 country projects
have been completed including three, which focused on promoting production and
trading opportunities for organic agriculture in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. One
of the recent successes of the CBTF has been the assistance provided to the East
African Organic Products Standard (EAOPS), which is the world’s second
regional organic standard after the European Union. The East African Community
(EAC) adopted the EAOPS, which overrules all existing national standards in the
five EAC countries. As a result of the collected evidence, research, advocacy and
lobbying by the CBTF and its partners, organic products have been included in
Uganda’s National Export Strategy 2008-2012. Tanzania has, for the first time,
included a special reference to organic agriculture in its national agriculture
policy, and Kenya has established a Desk for Organic Agriculture in the Ministry
of Agriculture.

ILO13

The International Labour Organization is the UN specialized agency devoted to

advancing opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive work
in conditions of freedom, equity, security, and human dignity. The ILO’s trade-
related services promote an integrated approach to trade, employment and decent
work – one that seeks to simultaneously enhance a country’s trade performance
and create more, and better, jobs. The ILO seeks to enhance the capabilities of
countries and the social partners (governments, workers’ and employers’
organizations) to realize the opportunities for decent employment and income that
may be created as a result of trade and to limit social adjustment costs. The ILO
seeks to achieve this through actions at the international, regional and national
levels.
At the international level, the ILO contributes to research and the development of
analytical tools on the potential employment effects of trade policies and measures
that maximize opportunities for employment and decent work from trade. The aim
is to promote evidence based dialogue between ILO’s constituents - governments,
trade unions and employers’ organizations - on these topics. The ILO also engages
with other international agencies to promote policy coherence between trade
policies on the one hand, and labour market policies on the other.
At the regional level, the ILO assists regional institutions to assess the impact of
trade integration on decent work, and to develop regional social policies on
employment, skills development, the movement of people, labour standards, and
other social goals.

13
http://www.ilo.org

29
At the national level, the ILO is involved in:

 Assessing the impact of trade policy on employment and working conditions

and promoting coherence between trade, investment, labour market, and
education policies;
 Developing integrated sectoral strategies that seek to improve the export
competitiveness of enterprises together with the number of jobs created and
the conditions of work and employment;
 Promoting the integration of skills policies in sectoral strategies to support
export growth, economic diversification, and creation of more and better
jobs14;
 Supporting social dialogue between trade unions, employers’ organizations,
and government to promote more effective and coherent trade and labour
market policies;
 Facilitating labour market adjustment to trade reform or external shocks by
providing assistance with the development of active labour market policies,
and adequate regulatory frameworks and institutions to provide social
protection;
 Unlocking the potential of enterprises to create decent jobs by providing
market information, facilitating cluster development and upgrading in value
chains, improving workplace practices, and promoting a supportive
business environment.

Through its training arm, the International Training Centre in Turin, the ILO
provides training modules on the nexus of trade and labour markets. The training
targets ILO’s constituents as well as trade negotiators and professionals from
ministries of trade and regional economic organizations. The aim is to equip them
with conceptual and analytical tools to assess the employment effects of trade,
enhance coherence between trade, labour market, and education policies, and
anticipate the labour and skills demand resulting from trade.

UNCITRAL15

The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) was

established by the General Assembly in 1966 (Resolution 2205(XXI) of 17
December 1966). In establishing the Commission, the General Assembly
recognized that disparities in national laws governing international trade created
obstacles to the flow of trade. As a matter of fact, differences in domestic

14
www.ilo.org/STED
15
http://www.uncitral.org

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legislation can create legal uncertainty, which increases the cost of transactions or
can become a deterrent to the transaction itself, in particular for small and medium
enterprises. The General Assembly also regarded the Commission as the vehicle by
which the United Nations could play a more active role in reducing or removing
these obstacles.

Much of the complex network of international legal rules and agreements that
affects today’s commercial arrangements has been reached through long and
detailed consultations and negotiations organized by UNCITRAL. Therefore,
these texts are widely acceptable as offering solutions appropriate to different legal
traditions and to countries at different stages of economic development.

UNCITRAL has since become the core legal body of the United Nations system in
the field of international trade law.

Mandate

UNCITRAL’s aim is to remove or reduce legal obstacles to the flow of

international trade and progressively modernize and harmonize trade laws.
UNCITRAL gives effect to this mandate inter alia, by preparing or promoting the
adoption of new international legal texts; and promoting ways and means of
ensuring their uniform interpretation and application. UNCITRAL also seeks to
coordinate the work of organizations active in this type of work and promote wider
acceptance and use of the rules and legal texts it develops.

The Commission comprises 60 member States elected by the General Assembly

for a term of six years. Every three years the terms of half of the members expire.
Membership is structured to ensure representation of the world's various
geographic regions and its principal economic and legal systems.

The Secretariat, located in Vienna, assists UNCITRAL in its work, prepares

studies, reports and draft texts; conducts legal research, drafts and revises working
papers and legislative texts; provides technical legislative assistance to States and
prepares publications.

Working Methods: Texts designed to simplify trade transactions and reduce

associated costs are adopted by the Commission that meets once a year alternating
between New York and Vienna. The substantive preparatory work is carried out by
working groups comprising all member States of UNCITRAL, which meet once or
twice per year, alternatively in New York and Vienna.

In addition to member States, all States that are not members of the Commission,
as well as interested international organizations, and relevant non-governmental

31
organisations, are invited to attend sessions of the Commission and of its working
groups as observers. Observers are permitted to participate in discussions at
sessions of the Commission and its working groups to the same extent as members.

Legal Texts: UNCITRAL develops different types of texts; these are generally
legislative texts, such as conventions, model laws and legislative guides, or non-
legislative texts such as contractual rules that can be incorporated into commercial
contracts and legal guides.

 Convention: an agreement among States establishing obligations binding

upon those States that ratify or accede to it;
 Model law: a set of model legislative provisions that States can adopt by
enacting them into national law;
 Legislative guide: a text that provides guidance for the development of
laws, discussing relevant policy issues and choices and recommending
appropriate legislative solutions;
 Contractual rules: standard clauses or rules designed to be included in
commercial contracts; and.
 Legal guide: a text that provides guidance for the drafting of contracts,
discussing relevant issues and recommending solutions appropriate to
particular circumstances.

Technical Assistance

One of UNCITRAL's priorities is the provision of technical assistance for

modernization of trade laws and commercial practices. UNCITRAL carries out this
part of its mandate through a variety of activities that include briefing missions,
seminars and conferences; law reform assessments to assist national authorities to
review existing legislation and assess their need for law reform in the commercial
field; assisting with the drafting of national legislation to implement UNCITRAL
texts; assisting international development agencies to use UNCITRAL texts in their
law reform activities and projects; providing advice and assistance to international
and other organizations, such as professional associations, chambers of commerce
and arbitration centres, on the use of UNCITRAL texts; and organizing training
activities for judiciaries and legal practitioners. UNCITRAL also prepares teaching
and information technical materials, which facilitate interpretation of the texts and
are used to support technical assistance activities. Technical assistance is provided
to officials and legislators of individual States, as well as through regional and
international organizations and initiatives.

One way in which UNCITRAL provides technical assistance is also through its
Case Law on UNCITRAL Texts system (CLOUT) that provides information to help

32
uniform interpretation of UNCITRAL texts. This is important in order to ensure
that the texts are applied consistently by the different States. CLOUT is a
collection of court decisions and arbitral awards, from all over the world,
interpreting UNCITRAL texts. It includes abstracts (i.e. reports) in the six United
Nations languages on various UNCITRAL Conventions and Model Laws. New
texts are added as case law becomes available. The CLOUT database can be
accessed at the UNCITRAL web-site at http://www.uncitral.org/uncitral/en/case_law.html.

Achievements: Since it was established, UNCITRAL has completed major

international texts on sale of goods, transport, dispute resolution, procurement and
infrastructure development, international payments, electronic commerce and
insolvency.

THE UN REGIONAL COMMISSIONS:

1. UNECA16
The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) was established
by the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations (UN) in
1958 as one of the UN's five regional commissions. UNECA's mandate is to
promote the economic and social development of African countries, foster intra-
regional integration, and promote international cooperation for Africa's
development. UNECA's dual role as a regional arm of the UN, and a part of the
regional institutional landscape in Africa, positions it well to make unique
contributions to Africa’s development. Its strength derives from its role as the only
UN agency mandated to operate at the regional and sub-regional levels to harness
resources and bring them to bear on Africa's priorities.
UNECA's work programme focuses on achieving results in two related and
mutually supportive areas: promoting regional integration in support of the African
Union vision and priorities; and meeting Africa's special needs and emerging
global challenges. UNECA's support to the implementation of African Union
Charter’s regional integration agenda focuses on undertaking research and policy
analysis on regional integration issues, strengthening capacity and providing
technical assistance to institutions driving the regional integration agenda,
including strengthening and supporting the Regional Economic Communities
(RECs), and working on a range of trans-boundary initiatives and activities in
sectors vital to the regional integration agenda.
UNECA recognizes the importance of focusing attention on Africa's special needs,
particularly within the context of achieving the Millennium Development Goals

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33
(MDGs). In this regard, ECA places emphasis on supporting efforts to eradicate
poverty, placing African countries on the path of growth and sustainable
development, reversing the marginalization of Africa in the globalization process,
and accelerating the empowerment of women.
In the area of Regional Integration, Infrastructure and Trade Division (RITD) ,of
UNECA focuses on issues relating to macroeconomic analysis, including
monitoring of macroeconomic trends and macro-micro linkages. It also deals with
international trade, developments in international trade negotiations, infrastructure,
finance and financial sector policies, debt, aid, investment, and industrial policies.
The UNECA undertakes analysis in order to make recommendations aimed at
helping Africa benefit from globalization through trade; conducts research and
outreach activities aimed at ensuring best practice in trade policy development and
integration in countries' development strategies; undertakes research and
dissemination activities on international and bilateral trade negotiations, with a
view to identifying how Africa could improve its development prospects via the
international trading system; and analyzes how global trade reforms are likely to
influence Africa's economic growth and development. Furthermore, UNECA’s
work in this area has also focused on research on analyzing how global trade
reforms are likely to affect Africa's economic growth and development prospects
and this has included: analysis of the Doha Round negotiations positions on
African economies, especially in the development of agriculture and NAMA
modalities; the Economic Partnership Agreements negotiations and their
adjustment challenges; and optimization of benefits from trade reforms through the
Aid-for-Trade initiative. Besides research on trade issues and organizing meetings
for advocacy purposes, the UNECA undertakes technical missions for advisory
services to African countries.
The UNECA set up the African Trade Policy Centre (ATPC) in May 2003 with the
financial support of the Government of Canada, through its Canada Fund for
Africa. The primary objective of the Centre is to strengthen the human,
institutional and policy capacity of African governments to formulate and
implement sound trade policies and participate more effectively in international
trade negotiations. Specific activities of ATPC include: conducting trade research;
disseminating trade-related information; providing training on trade issues;
providing advisory services; building African consensus on trade issues; and
creating partnerships on African trade issues. The ATPC's niche is to assist the
articulation of Africa-wide perspectives and positions on trade issues. The Centre
takes both a national and regional perspective and provides flexibility in
responding to the needs of African countries, including a rapid response to
technical needs arising from on-going trade negotiations.
To effectively leverage its TRTA programmes, UNECA has sub-Regional
Organizations (SROs) based in the 5 sub-regional of Eastern Africa, Southern

34
Africa, North Africa, West Africa and Central Africa. The SROs are the natural
interface between ECA headquarters; Member States and RECs. Informed by
demands of African Member States and RECs, SROs lead in shaping ECA’s
agenda and implementation at subregional level and operate as subregional hubs
for knowledge and management networking.
In addition, UNECA created ECA Interregional Advisory Services offices in
Geneva in 2003 to better serve the African Group in WTO negotiations. The office
gives technical support to the African WTO Geneva Group as a demand driven
response to requests by the African Group and individual African Member States.
For many of the African countries coping and managing a very broad agenda of the
WTO has been a formidable challenge. Despite the technical assistance provided to
the African countries by a number of countries and organizations, their effective
participation in multilateral trade negotiations still remains a critical challenge
because although the negotiating agenda in the WTO has expanded, most African
countries have not expanded their missions and have found their capacities and
numbers inadequate to deal with these expanded agenda and complex issues. It is
therefore critical for ECA and other organizations such as UNCTAD to continue to
enhance the capacity of the WTO Geneva Africa Group in these negotiations.
All in all, ECA has, inter alia and not limited to, a number of divisions such as
ICT, Science and Technology for Development, Food Security and Sustainable
Development, African Centre for Gender and Development and NEPAD, Industrial
Development and Finance Division all working towards human, social and
economic development of Africa.

2. UNECE17
The UN Economic Commission for
among its 56 member countries as a
growth in the region, which includes
Georgia, Moldova and Tajikistan to
Federation and the United States.
Europe (UNECE) promotes cooperation
way to foster development and economic
a wide variety of countries ranging from
France, Germany and Italy, the Russian

The UNECE provides a forum for discussion and a platform for the negotiation of
international legal instruments in a number of areas including trade, transport,
statistics, sustainable energy and the environment. With a history of more than 60
years of work on international norms, standards, and recommendations in the field
of trade, many of these UNECE instruments are recognized as having global
relevance and application.

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35
While participation in the development of its norms and standards, as well as their
use, is global, UNECE's technical assistance is mainly directed to the low and
middle income countries in southeast and eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and
Central Asia. At the same time, UNECE supports other countries outside the region
and other international organizations that use its standards, through guidelines,
tools and advice. The UNECE undertakes work in a number of trade areas
including trade facilitation, regulatory cooperation, electronic business standards,
supply capacity, transport and transport infrastructure.

One of the UNECE's best known areas of trade work is trade facilitation and
electronic business where it is recognized as a focal point within the UN system.
The motto of the responsible inter-governmental body, the UN Center for Trade
Facilitation and e-Business (UN/CEFACT), is “Simple, Transparent and Effective
Processes for Global Commerce”. One of its more recent and well-known
recommendations is on Single Windows for export and import information
submission (UNECE Rec.33). Currently, UNECE, in collaboration with the other
Regional Commissions, is working on the preparation of a roadmap for further
developing the Single Window concept and permitting greater collaboration
between these facilities in a regional and global context. The roadmap will explore
requirements for an integrated Single Window approach working across Trade,
Maritime and Port Community Systems along the entire supply chain.

UNECE's work in the field of trade facilitation and electronic business aims at
developing national competitiveness and participation in global markets by helping
countries develop the knowledge and institutions for facilitating national and
international transactions through the simplification and harmonization of
processes, procedures and information flows. Specifically, UNECE undertakes:

 Activities to support and build capacity in national trade facilitation organs

through advisory services and workshops;
 Activities to support the establishment and operation of national Single
Windows for export and import procedures and information;
 Activities to analyze and simplify business processes to remove bottlenecks
and enhance trade efficiency;
 Activities to support the implementation of electronic alternatives to key
paper documents in the international supply chain;
 Other activities to support paperless trade transactions.

Other important areas of UNECE’s work in the field of trade and productive
capacity include the following, each of these areas having associated capacity
building activities:

36
 Transport and border crossing facilitation, especially as regards the
application of the TIR Convention, and the development of Trans-European
and Euro-Asian transport links (in collaboration with UNESCAP);
 The development of agricultural quality standards that are used in many
countries, including the European Union where they apply to over 90% of
all fresh fruit and vegetable trade;
 Regulatory cooperation, including the launching of regional initiatives
aimed at facilitating trade by harmonizing the regulatory requirements for
selected products or services;
 Assistance to countries in designing and implementing national conformity
assessment schemes that are the least restrictive to trade that is possible,
while also ensuring both domestic consumer safety and a necessary
international level of confidence in national tests for exported products;
 Identification and sharing of best practice in the area of Public Private
Partnerships, where a guidebook on good governance as well as additional
has been developed;
 Strengthening the Protection of Intellectual Property Rights and their role in
innovation-based development.

3. ECLAC18
The UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) is
the regional Economic Commission of the United Nations for Latin America and
the Caribbean. The 33 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean are member
States of ECLAC together with several North American, Asian and European
nations that have historical, economic and cultural ties with the region, reaching a
total of 44 member States. Nine non-independent territories in the Caribbean are
associate members of the Commission. ECLAC fulfills an important advisory and
consensus-building role in the region and as such contributes to the economic and
social development of Latin America and the Caribbean. Building upon the general
framework which focuses on enhancing productive transformation while
strengthening at the same time social cohesion in open economies, the Programme
of Work of the ECLAC System for 2008-2009 identifies six priority areas for the
region, including Improvement of the region’s position in the international
economy and Increasing the region’s productive potential.
Under its general programme of work in the field of trade and development
ECLAC carries out a subprogramme on Linkages with the Global Economy,
Integration and Regional Cooperation intended to support the member States in

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37
strengthening their systemic competitiveness to achieve a more proactive and
efficient global integration. Special attention is given to supporting regional
cooperation and integration as vehicles for the enhancement of international
competitiveness and trade diversification. To achieve these goals, the ECLAC’s
Division of International Trade and Integration is assisting the member countries
with the following tasks:
 Assessment of the key analytical and policy issues associated with
multilateral trade negotiations and the negotiation and
implementation/administration of trade agreements at all levels and
monitoring of compliance;
 Assessment of economic and social impacts of trade policy, including
poverty reduction, and evaluation of existing trade agreements;
 Follow-up of the major national debates on the modalities, operations and
principal decisions of sub-regional integration schemes and analysis of their
economic and social impact, including poverty;
 Analysis on the impact that bilateral FTAs may have on the dynamics of
regional integration and policy proposals;
 Studies on economic and trade relations of the region with Asia Pacific with
special emphasis on technical assistance directed towards governments and
business organizations;
 Identification, implementation and monitoring of Aid for Trade (AfT)
initiatives including trade facilitation measures, with appropriate technical
assistance and proactive policy proposals directed towards Member States
and the business community in this area;
 Analysis and technical assistance on human and institutional capacity-
building on innovation and technological progress for trade diversification
and greater international competitiveness not only in manufactures exports
but also in natural resource-based sectors; and
 Analysis on links between trade and sustainable development.
ECLAC is currently executing several joint projects on the above-mentioned areas
with agencies such as the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ), the
Andean Development Corporation, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB),
the World Bank and the Andean Development Corporation (CAF) as well as
regional integration organizations such as the Latin American Free Trade
Association (ALADI), MERCOSUR, the Andean Community, the Central
American Common Market (CACM) and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).
The following projects carried out during 2008-2009 are worthy of highlighting in
the area of international trade and integration: i) "Public-Private Partnerships (PPP)
for Innovation and Export Development" carried out jointly with the Leadership
Program for Governance and Development - Prolider funded by AECI, SEGIB and
the OAS, with 15 publications and 8 activities between workshops and seminars,

38
ii) "Poverty, Trade policy and complementary policies (AECI) with 6 regional
meetings and 8 documents waiting for publication and iii) "Making Globalization
Sustainable and improving equitable access to global markets: Fair trade and trade
agreements (GTZ) - Component 3: Improving access to global markets".
Within the Cluster, in the last two years, ECLAC has intensified joint activities
with WTO, especially in the area of trade negotiation/administration. The
subprogramme also maintains close collaboration with UNCTAD, other Regional
Commissions of the United Nations, the UNDP, the Latin American Economic
System (SELA), and the Ibero-American Secretariat. Moreover, ECLAC also has
put online, with the support of the WTO, an Integrated Database of Trade Disputes
for Latin America and the Caribbean which comprises all the trade disputes
concerning Latin America and Caribbean countries at the WTO and other regional
and subregional bodies as well as updated, maintained and expanded a database on
external trade at the global level and in the countries of the region: Interactive
Graphic System for International Trade Data (SIGCI), with data originating in the
UN Statistical Division COMTRADE database. It is also worth to call attention to
the participation of ECLAC on the Regional Course on Key Issues on the
International Economic Agenda for Latin America and the Caribbean, organized
by the UNCTAD in Medellín, Colombia with the support of the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs of Colombia in September, 2009.

4. ESCAP19

The UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) is the
regional development arm of the United Nations for the Asia-Pacific region. With
62 Members and Associate Members, 58 of which are in the region, ESCAP is the
most geographically extensive of the United Nations five regional commissions. It
is also the largest United Nations body serving the Asia-Pacific region. Established
in 1947, with headquarters in Bangkok, Thailand, ESCAP focuses on those issues
that are most effectively addressed through regional cooperation.
ESCAP has had a long-standing sub-programme in trade and investment. The three
core functions of the programme are normative work, analytical work, and
technical cooperation. Within the Cluster, in the area of trade policy, ESCAP and
WTO have implemented a joint technical assistance programme since 1999
comprising of trade policy courses and specific courses on WTO topics and topics
related to the Doha Development Agenda negotiations. ESCAP also routinely
organizes regional high-level multi-stakeholder policy dialogues also associated
with WTO ministerial conferences. While most of ESCAP’s activities are at the

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regional level, national level work is also undertaken at the request of countries
through the provision of advisory services in trade and investment and, recently, in
the area of WTO accession and implementation of agreement (e.g., through an EC-
funded projects in Bhutan and Nepal). ESCAP is the secretariat of the Asia-Pacific
Trade Agreement (APTA), the oldest regional trade agreement in Asia, and
promotes APTA as a mechanism for regional trade and economic integration and
South-South cooperation. ESCAP established the Asia-Pacific Trade and
Investment Agreements Database (APTIAD) which serves as a starting point for a
comparative analysis of regional trade agreements in the region and the design of
common frameworks towards their consolidation. ESCAP is also the secretariat of
the Asia Pacific Research and Training Network on Trade (ARTNeT) which seeks
to build research and training of institutions in the area of trade and trade policies
and brings researchers and policy makers together to ensure that research is policy
oriented and meets the needs of policy makers.
In the area of trade facilitation and efficiency, ESCAP seeks to increase the
capacity of member countries to implement trade facilitation measures based on
innovative methods and techniques, ICT applications and better regional
cooperation. To achieve this objective, ESCAP organizes information and
knowledge-sharing activities; undertakes analytical work and technical assistance
activities to promote the adoption of international conventions, standards and best
practices with the view to simplify and harmonize trade procedures and documents.
The current projects focus on landlocked and transit developing countries,
including those in Central Asia. In order to provide a regional platform to share
knowledge and practice to facilitate the implementation of Single Window (SW)
and paperless trade in the region, within the Cluster, ESCAP and UNECE created
jointly the United Nations Network of Experts for Paperless Trade in Asia Pacific
(UNNExT) for practitioners and policy makers. The UNNExT develops trade
facilitation tools and undertakes capacity building activities to support the
implementation of international standards and solutions for aligned trade
documents and data, Single Window and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI).
ESCAP’s Trade Information Service (TIS), which became operational in 1980,
continues to promote trade and investment in the region through the dissemination
of relevant information and knowledge.
To increase the contribution of the private sector to inclusive and sustainable
development, ESCAP promotes the development of regional supply chains and the
development of SMEs through research and analysis and various capacity building
programmes. Through these programmes ESCAP helps build capacities of
countries to benefit from gains in global and regional market access. ESCAP also
seeks to stimulate business to produce and trade in a sustainable manner by
promoting more effective implementation of the principles of the Global Compact
in the region. It promotes public-private dialogue through the Asia-Pacific
Business Forum (APBF). Two of ESCAPs regional institutions, the United Nations

40
Asian and Pacific Center for Agricultural Engineering and Machinery
(UNAPCAEM) and the Asian and Pacific Center for Transfer of Technology
(APCTT), contribute to these goals through technology transfer both for industries
as well as in relation to ensuring food security and sustainable agriculture.

5. ESCWA20

The mission of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia
(ESCWA) is to promote economic and social development in the West Asia region
by fostering cooperation and integration among its 14 member countries. The
internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs) provide the overarching framework for ESCWA’s work. In terms
of economic integration and regional trade, ESCWA works to strengthen and build
the capacity of member countries to design and implement sound economic
policies and strategies for sustainable economic growth, poverty alleviation as well
as regional integration in a globalizing world. ESCWA promotes the sustainable
utilization of regional natural and human resources, integration of national markets,
and facilitation of intraregional cross-boundary flows of goods, services,
investment and people. ESCWA’s work programme pursues the objective by
promoting economic and social integration among its member countries at the
subregional and regional levels and fostering solidarity in the international political
arena and global economy.

ESCWA’s work programme on transport and trade facilitation is implemented

through the development of an Integrated Transport System in the Arab Mashreq
(ITSAM). This includes the implementation and monitoring of UN conventions on
the international road, rail and maritime transport in the region, as well as the
transport and trade facilitation (TTF) mechanisms and recommendations promoted
within ITSAM. Special attention is given to the continued establishment and
activation of, as well as the regional coordination among National Transport and
Trade Facilitation Committees (NTTFC).

In this regard, ESCWA assists its member Countries to build their capacity in (i)
trans-boundary flows of goods and services; (ii) Negotiation and accession skills
for the World Trade Organization (WTO) and other trade agreements; (iii)
Implementation of the Monterrey Consensus that emanated from the Financing for
Development Conference; and (iv) Managing the opportunities and challenges
posed by globalization.

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ESCWA aims to facilitate trans-boundary flows of goods, services, persons and
capital to foster regional integration and promote economic development.
ESCWA’s normative, analytical and operational activities assist member countries
in addressing the evolving trends of the new regional and global trading systems,
and place special emphasis on the Greater Arab Free Trade Area (GAFTA), the
World Trade Organization (WTO), South-South cooperation, the elimination of
non-tariff trade barriers and the introduction of trade facilitation measures, in
particular through the application of information and communications technologies
and the single window requirements that aim at accelerating and simplifying
information flows among traders and Governments in order to bring meaningful
gains to all parties involved in cross-border trade.

ESCWA assists member countries in improving export performance and enhancing

regional integration through encouraging domestic as well as foreign investments.

ESCWA’s technical assistance focuses on improving the capacity of member

countries through policy advice and capacity-building activities. It provides
advisory services, implements technical cooperation projects and organizes
workshops as well as training courses targeted to the needs of individual countries
and to the needs of the region as a whole. Emphasis is placed on strengthening the
negotiation skills of member States in respect of the WTO negotiation process,
continuing to increase their understanding of the opportunities and challenges
presented by WTO as well as regional integration agreements, defining obstacles
and barriers to participation in the multilateral trading system and organizing
awareness drives on the role of the Arab free-trade areas and other bilateral
agreements. Support is provided in enhancing regional development by analyzing
existing credit and investment policies and formulating specific recommendations
for the improvement of existing investment laws, regulations and incentives in
order to increase significantly the attractiveness of member countries to domestic
and foreign investors, with particular emphasis on interregional capital flows and
the return of capital invested outside the region.

Among others, tools adopted by ESCWA to fulfill its mandate include:

 Transport and Trade Facilitation through the development and

implementation of the various components of an Integrated Transport
System in the Arab Mashreq (ITSAM)
 Within ITSAM, implementing and monitoring international UN
conventions in the ESCWA region, the including the Agreement on
International Roads in the Arab Mashreq, Agreement on International

42
 Railways in the Arab Mashreq and the Memorandum of Understanding on
maritime transport cooperation in the Arab Mashreq;
 Convening annual Intergovernmental Group Meeting of the Committee on
Transport that discusses and approves all aspects of ITSAM;
 Conducting ministerial and expert group coordination meetings, such as
Arab Ministerial meetings on the preparation for the WTO Ministerial
Conferences, and follow up on the results of such WTO conferences
 Seminars and training/capacity-building workshops on relevant topics such
as transport and trade facilitation, agricultural trade, WTO negotiations,
trade in non-agricultural goods, trade in services, and on intellectual
property rights;
 Analytical and normative reports, such as the “Annual Review of
Developments in Globalization and Regional Integration in the Countries of
the ESCWA Region” and “Movement of Natural Persons in the ESCWA
Region,” Aid for Trade and South-South Cooperation;
 Establishment of the “Technical Committee on Liberalization of Foreign
Trade and Economic Globalization in the countries of the ESCWA region”;
 Responding to member country requests for technical assistance and
advisory services on multilateral trade issues and negotiations;
 Responding to member country requests for technical assistance and
advisory services on transport and trade facilitation, mainly the
establishment/activation of NTTFCs.
 Maintenance and regular updating of ESCWA’s trade and transport
facilitation related website in Arabic on regional integration and responding
to globalization;
 Networking and knowledge-sharing, as well as field projects, such as the
development account, “Interregional partnership for promoting trade as an
engine for growth through knowledge management and ICT”, where the
five regional commissions are actively involved; and
 Joint projects with UN regional commissions on capacity building through
developing interregional land and land-sea transport linkages; and
 Cooperation with other UN agencies and entities, such as the “Joint Project
on the Accession of the Syrian Arab Republic to the WTO”, in
collaboration with UNDP and UNCTAD and other regional organizations,
such as League of Arab States and Arab Labour Organization Cooperation
with the League of Arab States, World Bank, European Commission,
Islamic Development Bank and other regional and/or international
organization, on transport and trade facilitation issues.

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UNOPS21

UNOPS provides project management, procurement and other support services to

United Nations agencies, international financial institutions, governments and non-
governmental organizations. Established as part of the United Nations
Development Programme in 1974, UNOPS became an independent, self-financing
organization in 1995.

With some 1,000 core staff and tens of thousands of consultants around the world,
global headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark and a decentralized network of five
regional offices and over 20 operations and project centres, UNOPS oversees
activities in more than 50 project countries.

UNOPS operates according to the principles and values of the United Nations. It
has non-profit status and is exempted from tax and custom duties.

But UNOPS receives no core funding from the United Nations, relying instead on
the quality of its services to generate income. Operating in a competitive global
market, UNOPS applies leading private sector business practices. As a result,
clients enjoy the benefit of UNOPS efficiency, flexibility and value-for-money.
UNOPS always ensures that project ownership rests with its clients.

Services: UNOPS customizes its services to individual client needs, offering

everything from one-time stand alone solutions to long-term project management.
Core services include:

 Project management
 Procurement
 Human resources management
 Fund management
 United Nations common services

Experience: UNOPS is a proven service provider with more than 30 years

experience implementing large-scale, complex efforts throughout the world.
UNOPS often works in post-disaster and peace building settings, developing
countries and economies in transition.

In recognition of its specialized expertise, Secretary-General Kofi Annan

designated UNOPS as the lead United Nations entity for complex infrastructure
projects in peacekeeping settings.

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UNOPS also has considerable capacity and experience in other sectors including
education, environment, gender, governance, health, humanitarian relief and recovery,
justice and reconciliation, poverty mitigation, and security and disarmament.

UNOPS role in the Cluster as EIF Trust Fund Manager

The Trust Fund Manager (TFM) is the financial facility of the Enhanced Integrated
Framework (EIF), which has been established to “enhance the capacity of the Least
Development Countries (LDCs) to integrate into the multilateral trading system in
order to reduce poverty and benefit from increase market access”. UNOPS was
appointed by the EIF Board in May 2008 as the TFM of the EIF following a
competitive bidding exercise.
The EIF/TFM funding takes place through two project modalities:
Tier 1 is aimed at providing resources for institutional capacity building and
mainstreaming activities (i.e. building the human resource capacity of the National
Implementation Arrangements (NIA); providing operational support to the National
Implementation Units (NIUs); preparing and/or formulating the LDC’s Diagnostic
Trade Integrated Studies (DTIS); facilitating and supporting trade mainstreaming
actions such as workshops and studies. Since the inception of the TFM operations in
October 2008 up to mid-May 2010, the EIF Board has approved 22 Tier 1 projects
benefiting 20 LDCs in Africa and Asia. The prospect for LDC funding during 2010 is
promising since around 15 new Tier 1 projects are in the pipeline in benefit of the same
number of LDCs including a group of LDCs in the South Pacific Region (Oceania).
Tier 2 is aimed at facilitating the implementation of the projects identified in the DTIS
and its action matrix by providing funding to activities such as small priority projects,
project development activities, feasibility studies and seed projects. Tier 2 projects
should leverage resources and contribute to the overall coherence of Trade Related
Technical Assistance (TRTA). As a result of the approved Tier 2 guidelines in March
2010, the EIF project portfolio and TFM funding are expected to grow. Projections for
funding approval during 2010 are still under construction for EIF Board consideration.
A primary aim of the Cluster is to organize the supply side of the UN technical
assistance following the strategic purpose of “delivering as one”, while a primary aim
of the EIF/TFM is to help organize the demand side of the development cooperation
process in the LDCs by supporting the creation of national capacities for change and
fostering country ownership. The interface between the supply side (Cluster) and the
demand side (LDCs) is very important and should happen through the balanced process
of identification, formulation and implementation of Tier 1 and Tier 2 projects
addressing both Trade-Related Technical Assistance matters and Financial and
Fiduciary aspects.

45
D. ANNEXES

46
 ANNEX 1.
Trade Capacity Building Inter-Agency Resource Guide22

Overview and Main Categories

Introduction

UN organizations have expertise and experience, and can offer assistance in many
of the specific areas where countries want to build up their trade capacity.
However, precisely because there are many organizations offering assistance by
means of a wide diversity of specialized services, the authorities in developing
countries and UN Country Teams can find it difficult to know exactly what is
available from which agencies, and hard to comprehend how to combine such
services to form a holistic support package.

This Inter-Agency Resource Guide has been developed to address this challenge
and to make it easier for developing countries and local UN Country Teams to
draw on the wealth of UN-wide expertise, in particular when designing technical
assistance programmes for trade capacity building. The Guide is also intended to
facilitate collaboration between UN agencies. This Overview starts with a brief
reference to the contribution that trade can make to development. It then describes
the context of the increasing availability of ‘aid for trade’, coinciding with a UN-
wide effort for more coherence in the delivery of technical assistance. This chapter
also provides a systemic view of areas where UN agencies can support developing
countries. For each of these areas, highlights and examples of UN System services
and assistance are presented. More exhaustive, detailed information on the various
services that are available from the UN is then given in the later sections of the
publication.

The importance of trade for development

Trade has been recognized as a central element in development strategies since the
1950s, although different economic theories have emphasized different roles for it.
Trade not only reflects increased demand, but also new types of demand that have
stimulated specialization and encouraged technological change. With trade
growing at about twice the rate of global production in the last 50 years,
specialization and technological change have developed still further. It is generally
accepted that international trade is beneficial for economic growth and
development. It enables countries to exploit their ‘comparative advantage’ and use

22
Available on-line at: http://www.unido.org/index.php?id=o86537

47
their resources in the productive activities that provide the highest returns. Access
to new and larger markets for these products can lead to higher incomes, more
jobs, and better standards of living. In the 1980s and 1990s, changes in policy
reinforced the importance of trade for development, and policies have been
directed specifically at improving the trading opportunities for developing
countries, through special and differential treatment, preferences to encourage their
exports, and special regimes for some commodities. The Multilateral Trading
System has become more responsive to developing country interests, with reforms
to trade rules concerning agriculture, and textiles and clothing, and greater efforts
to prevent discrimination against developing country exports. Since the year 2000,
new measures offering trade concessions to Least Developed Countries (LDCs)
have been implemented. These measures have allowed some countries to rapidly
increase their exports and use these as a tool for development. However, the
increasing liberalization of all trade, both at multilateral level and in regional
arrangements, is reducing the beneficial impact of these preferences. For many
developing countries, providing opportunities and incentives has not been enough
to stimulate an increase in trade. In LDCs, in particular, the productive supply
capacity or export base is narrow, and relies strongly on commodities. Exporters
trying to export new products and penetrate new markets often lack access to legal
and commercial information services and to the technical support needed to
develop and produce their products and then to reach the markets. Many countries
lack supporting infrastructure, both physical infrastructure, such as transport and
communications, and institutional infrastructure, such as bodies to implement
international trade rules or to offer efficient financial services. Often countries find
it difficult to develop a national strategy to support trade development.

The need for ‘aid for trade’ to complement trade opportunities

In the last five years, the fact that some countries have been unable to take
advantage of apparently good opportunities and incentives to trade, and concerns
about the diminishing impact of preferences as trade negotiations continue, have
led both developing countries and donors to recognize the need for more aid to
help countries to take advantage of trade opportunities. Trade-related aid comes in
a wide variety of forms. Many programmes target specific obstacles that are
inhibiting countries’ ability to respond to trade opportunities. Others offer
assistance for all the stages of a trade response, from recognition of the importance
of trade, through to market information, regulation, infrastructure, credit, and
specific needs to develop productive capacities.

Recent initiatives, such as Aid for Trade, or the significant pledges made to support
the Enhanced Integrated Framework for trade-related technical assistance to LDCs
(EIF), have provided a boost for more trade-related technical assistance. At the
same time, UN-wide efforts for more coherence in the service delivery by the

48
various UN organizations have also reached out to the area of trade-related
assistance. Developing countries, donors, and UN agencies, are increasingly
striving for more systemic packages of services which aim to combine the
expertise of different agencies to provide technical assistance with a
problem/solution approach. Some of these programmes have already been
completed, while others are still continuing.

More and more pilot countries within the ‘One UN’ coherence exercise are now
including trade-related capacity building in their programmes. This increased
availability of ‘aid for trade’ is a welcome change, but it also brings challenges and
risks for countries trying to use it effectively. The large number of donors and
service providing agencies, both bilateral and multilateral, can make it difficult to
design a coordinated inter-agency trade development programme. At the same
time, the size of such programmes is growing as available funding increases. A
country which faces many problems in trading may find it difficult to identify
which are the most urgently needed support services. If it has little experience in
trading, it may find it difficult to identify which of the possible suggested measures
will be most effective and which agencies can deliver them.

The contribution of the UN System

Trade is usually driven by the economic interests of producers, buyers, and the
final consumers. But governments and regional markets are also involved in
determining which products, and with which specifications, are bought. Various
intermediary agents facilitate the transactions. Development partners, including the
UN, can provide facilitating support at some of the critical points linking the
producer with the buyer or client, thereby making trade more likely to happen. This
support ranges from general advocacy and policy support, to the strengthening of
the institutional enabling environment, to direct match-making support. The
diverse range of expertise and services available within the UN System can make it
difficult for developing countries to know which agency to approach for which
service. Countries, UN Country Teams, and indeed the agencies themselves, will
benefit from a directory of available services. This directory also signals areas
where there is less help available, and thus indicates where agencies or other
development partners could consider designing new programmes or services. In
some cases, where services are, or should be, closely complementary, increased
information about who provides what service may facilitate coordination or joint
programmes among agencies.

Some key areas where the UN System provides support to local trade capacity
building efforts include:

49
1. Global advocacy for trade as a tool for development: The global
advocacy category covers UN agency services that are designed to promote the use
of trade as a development tool and to encourage support for developing countries’
efforts to improve their trade capacity building. This includes analysis and
dissemination of trade-related information, promoting the understanding of the
relationship between trade and development, and supporting policies. Some
agencies provide information on and support for the interactions between their
more specialized interests and trade.

2. Trade policy development, including competition policies: Agencies’

assistance to trade policy development is generally provided in four areas: design
and implementation of trade policy; specific developing country issues in trade
(such as commodity exports and preferences); support in trade negotiations; and
assistance to strengthen the intersections between trade policies and other policies.

3. Design and implementation of legal and regulatory frameworks that

facilitate WTO accession, and allow for the implementation of WTO
agreements: Assistance under this category includes helping countries to bring
their own regulations into conformity with international rules, and more generally,
support to improve their legal institutions, including training of officials to deal
with such rules. A number of the agencies specialize, rather than trying to provide
expertise on the legal rules in all sectors. For several, the aim is to balance
international obligations with other national or international interests.

4. Supply capacity development, including the improvement of the

business environment and the investment climate, the provision of business
services and access to financing, and private sector development in general: In
line with the trade focus of this Guide, support activities to develop supply capacity are
considered those that aim to increase the availability of goods and services for export.
There is no easy distinction between this, and building capacity to produce more
generally, say for local consumption, but this distinction is becoming less pertinent due
to open borders and increased competition in local markets from imported products.
Some agencies therefore no longer make this distinction in their work.

5. Compliance infrastructure and support services, in particular from

standards, creditation and certification bodies, testing and calibration
laboratories, inspection services: The assistance in this category is closely related
to that under the Legal and Regulatory Framework category, but places more
emphasis on building the institutions in developing countries to implement such legal
frameworks. It is an area where the specialized agencies again have the main role.

6. Trade promotion by the development of export promotion strategies,

and the strengthening of trade promotion institutions: Included in this category

50
are both direct support to exporters, and building institutions in-country which will
provide such support. It is different from many of the other categories because of
an almost entirely private sector focus.

7. Market and trade intelligence structures and services: Market

Information and Trade Information services are different in their focus and
methods. Market information is provided at the sub-sector and product level, while
trade information focuses on aggregate level and includes data and trends in trade
flows and policies affecting trade. Market information is usually targeted at
producers, exporters, and traders. Trade information is, broadly speaking, intended
to be used by policy-makers for analyzing trends and setting trade policy.

8. Import and export mechanisms and processes by the streamlining of

customs procedures, and border and transport management: This category
covers the development, harmonization, and implementation of rules and
procedures that govern how goods cross borders.

9. Physical trade-related infrastructure such as ports, rail transport,

roads, cool chains, and harbours: This category covers the development,
harmonization, and implementation of rules and procedures that govern how goods
cross borders.

10. Trade and export financing, international payments and other trade-
related financing: Trade finance is one of the areas where exporters from
developing countries are most disadvantaged compared to those from developed
countries, because selling at a distance to purchasers who are not directly known
within the country requires special skills, schemes, and risk assessment from
banks. Only when exports reach a sufficiently high level is it profitable for banks
in a country to acquire these skills. On the other hand, exports, in particular of
SMEs, are hampered by the difficultly in accessing export finance. So, both the
cost and the availability of appropriate finance are problems. Some agencies offer
support to build national capacity, while others try to fill the gap until this can be
done.

Twenty-one different agencies have participated in the development of this

Resource Guide and provided descriptions of their services. For some agencies,
such as the WTO, UNCTAD or ITC, trade-related activities are at the core of their
work; for other agencies, trade development and trade-related technical assistance
may not be spelt out as central to their mandate, but in their area of specialization
they offer services that are important to support the development of trade capacity.

The following table identifies the areas of intervention where each of the 21 UN
agencies provides services.

51
MAIN
CATEGORIES Refers (not limited) to:
Services aimed to increase consciousness on trade and its impact on
development:
1. - Global o Millennium Development
Advocacy Goals
o PRPS
o Mainstreaming of trade
issues into development
Services aimed to assist the development of policies regarding trade
o Trade Policy o Impact studies
2. - Trade Policy o Competition policy o Enhancing business
Development o Country studies and participation in trade
diagnostics (e.g.DTIS) policy issues
Service on issues related to the Multi-lateral trading system:
3. - Legal and o WTO accession facilitation o Notification requirements
Regulatory o Trade agreements o Anti-dumping, subsidies,
Framework o Trade Diplomacy countervailing measures
o Dispute resolution and safeguards
o Good regulatory practice o Environmental policy
o Awareness & negotiation o Consumer policy
WTO agreements (on TBT, o Government procurement
SPS, etc.) o TRIPS
Services aimed to enhance competitiveness of the supply capacity base:
4. - Supply o Development of process o Export consortia
Capacity capacities o Cleaner production
o Productive capabilities o Financial services to
o Production infrastructure supply capacity
o Product design o Energy cost & supply
o Quality management and (electricity, gas, petrol)
infrastructure o Industrial Policy
o Labeling and packaging o FDI policy
o Business Networking o Rural linkage
o Value chain integration o Investment climate
o Technology upgrade development
o Cluster development o Private sector
development
Services targeting conformity and
compliance:
5. - Compliance o Framework for conformity o Inspection & certification
Support system o Accreditation institutions
Infrastructures o Good practices (GAP, GMP, and services
and Services HACCP) o International recognition
o TBT, SPS compliance o Quality policy
o Standards and technical o Consumer protection
regulations compliance
o National/regional
standardization
o Testing & metrology
Services promoting trade and exports:
6. - Trade o Enhancing trade support institutions operations
Promotion o (Chamber of commerce, export promotion bodies, etc)
Capacity o Export strategy development and implementation
Building

52
 Services related to market analysis and information:
7. - Market and o Market information
Trade o Trade information
Information o Cross country studies
o Export competitiveness analysis
o E-commerce
o Export competences
Services aimed to alleviate import and export procedures:
o Customs upgrading o Aligned Trade Documents
8. - Trade (valuation, procedures and o Electronic standards/EDI
Facilitation mechanisms) o Paperless trade
o Custom clearance and o Single window
harmonization environment
o Border management and o Tariff negotiations
performance monitoring o Tariff development and
systems reforms
o Pre-shipment o TRAINS
o Trade procedures o Logistics and transport
o Tariffs and market access services: regulations and
barriers competitiveness
o Rules of origin

Services related to transport and transportation issues:

9. - Physical o Road & rail infrastructure o Transport Vehicle
Trade o Air Transport and Airport standards
Infrastructure Operations o Landlocked countries
o Maritime Transport and Port access
Operations o Transit facilitation and
o Port/harbor operations & logistics
efficiency| o Transit guarantee
o Multimodal transport systems
o Handling procedures o ICT infrastructure for trade
o Transport o Rural-Urban transport
security/Dangerous goods logistics
Pre-shipment inspection o Warehousing
o Cargo tracking systems o Cool chain
o Transport &
Communications policy.

Services aimed to facilitate financial aid

to trade:
10. –Trade o Trade Finance Access o Financial transactions
Related o Export financing (sell and buy)
Financial o International payments
Services

53
 ANNEX 2.
Aid for Trade and Human Development,
A Guide To Conducting Aid For Trade
Needs Assessment Exercises23
2009
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acronyms and abbreviations ................................................................................9

Executive summary .............................................................................................11

1. INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW ...................................................15

1.1 Background and objectives .......................................................................15
1.2 Aid for Trade ..............................................................................................15
1.3 The need for a guide ...................................................................................17
1.4 Purpose of Aid for Trade needs assessments studies .................................17

2. TRADE MAINSTREAMING .................................................................19

2.1 Trade mainstreaming and national ownership ............................................20
2.2 Levels of trade mainstreaming ...................................................................22

3. TRADE AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT ...........................................25

3.1 Human development and its relation to economic growth .........................25
3.2 Trade and human development: theory and framework .............................28
3.3 Trade, gender and human development .....................................................36
3.4 Trade and environment ..............................................................................38

4. AID FOR TRADE NEEDS ASSESSMENT:

STRUCTURE AND PROCESS ............................................................44
4.1 Structure of the Aid for Trade needs assessments: Outline of chapters .....44
4.2 Research design and work plan ..................................................................46
4.3 Participation and consultation with stakeholders .......................................50

5. MACROECONOMIC AND BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT ................54

5.1 Macroeconomic environment .....................................................................54
5.2 Business environment and investment climate ..........................................56
5.2.1 Judicial system and regulatory framework .................................................57
5.2.2 Administrative Barriers ..............................................................................58

23
Available on line, see
http://content.undp.org/go/cms-service/download/publication/?version=live&id=2077604

54
5.2.3 Trade-related infrastructure ........................................................................59
5.2.4 Business services ........................................................................................59
5.2.5 Financial services and trade finance ...........................................................60
5.2.6 Competitiveness .........................................................................................61

6. TRADE AND INVESTMENT POLICIES ............................................62

6.1 Trade flows and economic openness ..........................................................63
6.2 Trade policy and institutions ......................................................................64
6.2.1 Trade policy ...............................................................................................64
6.2.2 Institutional framework ..............................................................................67
6.2.3 Trade agreements and market access .........................................................68
6.2.4 WTO accession (where applicable) ............................................................70
6.3 Investment policies and foreign direct investment .....................................72

7. TRADE FACILITATION AND STANDARDS ....................................75

7.1 Trade facilitation ........................................................................................75
7.1.1 Enterprises (exporters and importers) ........................................................76
7.1.2 Government ................................................................................................76
7.1.3 Business service providers .........................................................................77
7.1.4 Infrastructure services ................................................................................78
7.2 Standards ....................................................................................................81

8. SECTORAL ANALYSIS ........................................................................85

8.1 Sectoral analysis guidelines .......................................................................86
8.1.1 SWOT analysis ..........................................................................................87
8.1.2 Value chain analysis ...................................................................................88
8.1.3 Cluster analysis ..........................................................................................90
8.2 Sector assessments and human development .............................................91

9. TRADE POLICIES: AN IMPACT ASSESSMENT .............................96

9.1 Human Development Impact Assessment (HDIA) ....................................96
9.1.1 Trade policy change and expected effects ..................................................96
9.1.2 Transmission channels and expected trade-related outcomes ....................97
9.1.3 HDIA implementation: considerations and constraints ..............................97
9.2 Poverty and Social Impact Assessment (PSIA) .........................................98
9.3 Quantitative methods for trade analysis ...................................................100
9.3.1 Partial equilibrium models .......................................................................100
9.3.2 Computable general equilibrium models .................................................101
9.3.3 Gravity models .........................................................................................102

10. FINAL REMARKS, ACTION MATRIX AND

LAUNCHING THE STUDY ...............................................................104

References ..........................................................................................................106

55
 Executive summary
This guide is designed to help policy makers, trade officials and researchers
conduct needs assessment studies on trade and human development under the Aid
for Trade (AfT) initiative conceived at the 2005 World Trade Organization (WTO)
Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong.

The AfT initiative is one of the most important development-related outcomes in

recent years. The declaration in Hong Kong stated that AfT should help developing
countries build supply-side capacity and trade-related infrastructure to help them
benefit from trade agreements and, more broadly, to enhance the contribution of
trade to development. The AfT initiative recognizes that existing trade negotiations
need to be complemented by stronger domestic policy and international
cooperation. Least Developed Countries (LDCs) already receive assistance under
the Enhanced Integrated Framework for Trade Related Technical Assistance to
LDCs, and this guide can be used to inform and update the Diagnostic Trade
Integration Studies under the Enhanced Integrated Framework. As with LDCs,
many developing and middle-income countries also continue to face problems with
productive capacity: they generally have access to other markets but cannot
produce in sufficient quality or quantity. This can be because infrastructure is
weak, markets are isolated or distant, and bureaucracy is onerous or international
rules too complex. According to estimates of the Organisation for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD), Official Development Assistance (ODA)
commitments in the aid categories associated with the definition of AfT accounted
for $21 billion on average between 2002 and 2005. Assuming that donors meet
commitments to scale up aid up to $130 billion in 2010, ODA in the categories
most closely associated with AfT could increase by $8.5 billion.

The trade needs assessment reports resulting from using this guide are intended to
make trade and development policies more integrated with each other and thus
conducive to human development. The needs assessments will result in concrete
and actionable recommendations aimed at mainstreaming trade in national
development strategies. The regional dimension, however, remains crucial.
Maximizing coordination between regional economic communities and individual
member countries will help ensure agreement on which projects are ready for
support and what their implementation time-frame should be. Typically, an AfT
needs assessment contains chapters on the macroeconomic and business
environment; trade and investment policy; trade facilitation; and various sectors of
the economy and the analysis of the impact of specific trade measures on human
development. The guide does not suggest trade policy advice or provide regional
and country analysis, but presents tools and methods for looking at trade policies
from a human development point of view. Finally, the AfT needs assessments

56
should not make AfT conditional on trade liberalization. Rather, the primary
intention is to use AfT for the development of trade, using whatever means are
appropriate.

Trade and human development

Poverty is traditionally defined as a lack of income or ability to consume. Yet, the

human development approach goes beyond income and consumption. Human
development is about expanding the ability of people to make choices that improve
their lives. Whilst consumption and income are important, human development has
been defined as ‘human flourishing in its fullest sense — in matters public and
private, economic and social, and political and spiritual’ — and, according to
Nobel prize-winner Amartya Sen, as “a process of enlarging people’s choices and
freedom”. Since women have the most to gain from human development, gender
must form an intimate part of the needs assessments and should not be included
just as a subheading or standalone section. The Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs), of which 3 and 5 deal with gender equity and maternal health, are
necessarily linked with the concept of human development and trade. Even if the
MDGs do not necessarily reflect all aspects of human development, they comprise
the most comprehensive set of human development goals and targets so far
adopted.

The gains from trade are numerous, and extend beyond the immediate commercial
benefits. Trade and investment can contribute to human development by helping to
raise productivity, employment and economic growth. Trade and investment can
also increase the variety and quality of goods available to consumers, and help
lower the likelihood of political conflicts between countries. Yet, the links between
human development and trade are complex and not always easy to discern. They
depend partly on country-specific circumstances. To what extent does poverty
exist, and what type? What kind of trade reform is involved? What kind of natural
endowments does the country have? Many developing countries suffer from
widespread rural poverty, although some do not; many are members of the WTO,
although not all; most countries are involved in regional trade agreements; and
several are rich in natural resources, while some have none. These variations
between countries underline the requirement for the needs assessment exercises to
be nationally-owned and driven.

Trade and underlying trade policies are redistributive in their nature, meaning that
they impact different population groups in different ways. Therefore, trade
liberalization may imply a net welfare transfer from one economic sector or group
to another. Policy changes and trade agreements are, nonetheless, only one of the
factors behind a country’s trade performance and their implementation might be
not sufficient to boost trade, exports and growth. Trade policy should be addressed

57
together with other aspects of industrial policy and the macroeconomic setting.
Country-specific factor endowments, the business climate and comparative
advantages can be at least as important in the current global trading environment.

Despite the variations between countries and the challenges of linking trade policy
and human development, it is possible to identify a number of standard links
between human development and trade. The economic growth that may come with
trade expansion is likely to enhance the rate of human development but not if it is
accompanied by environmental degradation, poorer health care and weakened
security. The relationships between trade, economic growth and human
development are not automatic, and indeed it is possible to experience economic
growth (accompanied by a significant level of trade) without any impact on human
development. This guide looks at trade and human development from multiple
perspectives, including gender and environmental considerations. This entails the
identification of existing patterns in the economy, market opportunities to increase
people’s well-being, and the risks arising from globalization that people should be
prepared to face.

Successfully using trade to maximize the rate of human development depends on

the coherence of national and international policies. Government policy, including
trade policy, has a crucial role to play. This guide is not a blueprint and does not
cover the relationship between trade and human development in a comprehensive
or exhaustive manner. Rather, it aims to enable countries to systematically analyse
their capacity constraints, identify their needs in the current international trading
context and express them in a document embodying a credible and actionable
programme that enables them to benefit fully from AfT.

Trade needs assessments

The most important goal of the needs assessment studies is to identify a set of
policy recommendations and technical assistance needs aimed at improving the
contribution of trade to human development and poverty reduction. This set of
recommendations should:

 help overcome the identified constraints;

 meet the costs of adjusting to current or anticipated trade agreements;
 tackle institutional and infrastructure capacity limitations;
 suggest action plans to remove bottlenecks and seize opportunities.

In order to derive these recommendations, the needs assessment studies should

analyse the existing and potential impact of trade on human development. The use
of participation techniques and public consultations has had an increasingly

58
beneficial impact on policy-making. Participation brings political, legal and social
benefits and can reduce the risks of strong opposition and unrest. Trade policy is
no different. The analysis should include the perspectives of key stakeholders in
government, the private sector, academia and civil society. Thus, the main
objectives of the analysis are the following:

 review current investment and trade policies and their linkages with
economic growth and human development;
 assess the country’s business environment and investment climate;
 analyse selected existing (ex-post) trade policies and agreements —
bilateral, regional, and WTO — and those under negotiation (ex ante) for
economic growth, employment, equity and poverty, policy space and public
sector capacity implications;
 review economic and export performance as well as any specific constraints
that the country’s exports face in international markets;
 analyse key economic sectors for expansion of output, productivity, exports,
employment and sustainability;
 consider the impact of the above on poverty, inequality, social exclusion
and regional disparities, as well as on policies to address these and related
development challenges.

This is not a checklist but provides an indication as to the content of the needs
assessment exercises. Each country needs assessment will differ depending on its
specific circumstances. The guide also proposes that the AfT study establishes a
matrix of specific policy recommendations and institutional reforms, outlining
ways in which trade might contribute more to economic growth, human
development and poverty reduction.

The second chapter briefly describes how trade can be mainstreamed into
government policies. The third chapter describes the link between trade and human
development from a theoretical perspective, examining the relationship between
trade and such factors as gender, environment and poverty. The bulk of this guide,
beginning with chapter four, offers practical guidance on undertaking AfT needs
assessments. Concepts such as trade mainstreaming and ownership should be
central in any approach to this exercise.

While the human development perspective should be reflected throughout the AfT
study, practical and operational recommendations should be established on a
sector- by-sector basis. Quantitative and qualitative tools and methods to address
these issues are presented in chapter 8 (sector assessments — including SWOT,
value chain analysis) and 9 (trade policy impact assessment — HDIA, PSIA, CGE,
the gravity model).

59
 ANNEX 3.

Statement of the Secretary-General of the United Nations

Mr. Ban Ki-moon

LAUNCHING OF THE CEB INTER-AGENCY CLUSTER

ON TRADE AND PRODUCTIVE CAPACITY

UNCTAD XII, Accra, 20 April 2008

Distinguished Delegates,
Distinguished Heads and Representatives of the agencies of the Cluster,
Ladies and gentlemen,

I welcome the launching of this interagency cluster on trade and productive

capacity, and commend the efforts of the UN system organizations towards its
establishment. I consider this an important contribution to system-wide coherence.
It will add concrete and operational strength to the "development pillar" of the UN
system.

Building competitive productive capacity is crucial to the use of trade as an engine

of development, as well as to the success of the development process. UN must
play its full role in this regard. Trade and productive capacity building should,
therefore, constitute a pivotal component of the UN country assistance plans.

I pleased that the cluster aims at translating into coherent field operations the
linkages between trade, poverty reduction, and human development, with a view to
helping countries achieve the internationally agreed development goals, including
the MDGs.

Trade-related assistance has played, until now, a marginal role within the UN
country assistance plans. I encourage the cluster to play a pro-active role in
coherently beefing up trade and trade-related technical cooperation activities for
the benefit of developing countries, especially for Africa, least developed
countries, and other countries with special developmental needs.

60
The operational flexibility of the cluster should allow all parts of the UN system to
play their respective roles effectively. I am pleased that UNCTAD is coordinating
this interagency mechanism, thanks to its central trade and development mandate
within the UN system.

We will continue to rely on the member States, especially the donor countries, for
the financial support to our development operations. I would also like to call for
greater coherence in the financing of UN development operations. The One UN
funds are a welcome step in this regard, but much more needs to be done.

There should also be greater coherence in aid, trade, debt, investment and
technology policies to better support productive capacity building. In this regard,
would like to invite donors to work towards a more balanced sectoral allocation of
development assistance.

I wish this cluster full success.

61
United Nations Inter-Agency Cluster
on Trade and Productive Capacity

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development

United Nations Industrial Development Organization
Food and Agriculture Organization
International Trade Centre
World Trade Organization
United Nations Development Programme
United Nations Environment Programme
International Labour Organization
United Nations Commission for International Trade Law
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
United Nations Economic Commission for
Latin America and the Caribbean
United Nations Economic and Social Commission
for Asia and the Pacific
United Nations Economic and Social Commission
for Western Asia
United Nations Office for Project Services

www.unsceb.org
www.undg.org
www.unctad.org